The EU Commission aims to enshrine into law the 2050 climate-neutrality target and has taken further steps to establish a unified EU “green” classification system.
By Paul A. Davies, Michael D. Green, and Federica Rizzo
The European Green Deal, presented on 11 December 2019, provides a roadmap with actions aimed at boosting the efficient use of resources and the circular economy, decarbonising the energy sector, and investing in environmentally friendly technologies.
On 4 March 2020, the EU Commission (the Commission) published its Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the framework for achieving climate neutrality and amending Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 (the proposed European Climate Law). This year, the Commission will also present measures to increase the EU’s greenhouse gas emission reduction target for 2030, which will require additional investments of €260 billion a year by 2030, and to promote a climate-neutral EU by 2050.
Financial services regulators have been particularly vocal in the last 12 months, specifically about the impact on the financial services sector as the world experiences, and attempts to respond to, climate change.
If the 2010s were the decade in which green bonds took hold, the 2020s will be the decade in which sustainable finance hits the broader marketplace. The green bond market has hit its stride, with issuances reaching well over US$200 billion in 2019. Attaining that figure is quite an accomplishment, considering that the first green bond appeared in 2007. While the green bond market will likely continue to grow, sustainable finance is expected to extend well beyond the strictures of traditional green bonds to embrace sustainability priorities beyond environmentalism and products other than bonds.
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) was more prominent than ever in 2019, as issues such as climate change and corporate responsibility regularly appeared in news cycles worldwide. This year, observers can expect even more focus on this area, with public awareness of ESG at an all-time high, and major ESG-related events set to take place.
On 8 November 2019, the Council of the EU published a press release announcing the adoption of legislative reforms that aim to enhance the proposed capital markets union. Notably, two of the reforms are related to sustainable finance: the Low Carbon Benchmark Regulation (LCBR), and the Disclosure Regulation, the
On October 18, 2019, the EU, China, India, and five other countries combined to launch the International Platform on Sustainable Finance (IPSF). Acknowledging the role that private capital has to play in scaling up sustainable investment worldwide, the IPSF seeks to provide a platform to increase private-sector funding in this area. This blog post will consider in more detail the IPSF’s aims, as well as the ways in which the IPSF intends to achieve them.
On 22 September 2019, the United Nations and a group of 130 banks from 49 countries launched the UN Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) to provide an international framework for a sustainable banking system, and allow signatories to demonstrate their commitment to achieving the goals expressed in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement.
The annual update of the Green Bond Principles (now also including the Social Bond Principles, and the Sustainability Bond Guidelines, collectively, the Principles) on June 14, 2018 created few surprises. The Principles, highly influential in the sustainable finance space, are subject to annual revision by an executive committee comprised of a set of underwriters, issuers and investors (with the support of the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) as secretariat). Each year, members and observers of the Principles (including Latham & Watkins) submit proposals for amendments to the Principles, with the final amendments formally announced at an annual conference. This year’s conference was held in Hong Kong, in a move to highlight the importance of Asian markets for sustainable finance and the global reach of the Principles.