- Finance Finland endorses the goals of the Paris Agreement.
- We support the aims of EU sustainable finance projects, but market flexibility must be maintained. Companies should be given the freedom to innovate and enable different ways of doing sustainable finance.
- Past years’ experiences have shown that the broad scope of sustainable finance makes it a difficult phenomenon to regulate. Because regulation has long-term impact on investment, it must be carefully prepared and based on adequate impact assessment.
- Key projects in sustainable finance legislation include the EU Taxonomy and the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation. The EU released its renewed sustainable finance strategy in 2021.
Sustainable finance refers to financial sector economic activities that promote the aims of sustainable development. It is often related to lending and investment or, for insurers, on insurance policies. In recent years, the EU has issued regulation on sustainable investment, and banking supervisors have issued guidance on how sustainability risks should be addressed in lending activities.
One of the key legislative projects in sustainable finance at the moment is the Taxonomy Regulation, which establishes uniform EU-level criteria for evaluating the sustainability impact of investments. The classification system or taxonomy for sustainable investment will provide a basis for many other ongoing legislative reforms.
Finance Finland endorses science-based sustainability classifications that align with the goals of the Paris Agreement. The classifications should be based on the recommendations of the Technical Expert Group (TEG) set up by the Commission.