MODEL CONTRIBUTION TO THE SUSTAINABLE FINANCE STRATEGY

The document outlines a step-by-step process for responding to a consultation on the EU's sustainable finance strategy and provides model answers. It argues that the EU needs major additional policy actions to align finance with the Paris Agreement, specifically calling for a 'brown taxonomy' to identify harmful activities, a legal prohibition on financing new fossil fuel projects, and the establishment of a social taxonomy to identify socially abusive activities. It further suggests that the European Central Bank's monetary policy should exclude polluting sectors and that COVID-19 recovery funding should be tied to social and environmental conditions.

• The document argues that current information provided to non-specialist investors regarding the sustainability of their savings is often incomplete, inaccessible, and incomprehensible, leading to a lack of clarity on what projects or companies are being financed.
• To prevent greenwashing and ensure alignment with the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C path, the document suggests that all green investment products be legally required to follow EU standards and that sustainability criteria be set high.
• The document proposes the creation of a 'brown taxonomy' to define climate and environmentally harmful activities, which would serve as a basis for a law prohibiting loans and investments in new fossil fuel projects and other activities incompatible with a 1.5 degree trajectory.
• The document recommends that the EU establish a social taxonomy to identify and stop the financing of socially abusive activities, such as those breaching labour rights.
• The document suggests systemic financial reforms, including conditioning COVID-19 recovery laws on social and environmental criteria, implementing fiscal penalties like taxes on aviation fuel or fossil fuel share trading, and reforming European Central Bank (ECB) monetary policy to exclude coal, oil, gas, agrochemicals, and industrial agriculture from its QE and COVID-19 programmes.

APA

Reclaim Finance (n.d.). MODEL CONTRIBUTION TO THE SUSTAINABLE FINANCE STRATEGY. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/MODEL-CONTRIBUTION-TO-THE-SUSTAINABLE-FINANCE-STRATEGY.pdf

Chicago

Reclaim Finance. MODEL CONTRIBUTION TO THE SUSTAINABLE FINANCE STRATEGY. n.d. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/MODEL-CONTRIBUTION-TO-THE-SUSTAINABLE-FINANCE-STRATEGY.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Reclaim Finance |title=MODEL CONTRIBUTION TO THE SUSTAINABLE FINANCE STRATEGY |url=https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/MODEL-CONTRIBUTION-TO-THE-SUSTAINABLE-FINANCE-STRATEGY.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{reclaimfinancendmodel, author = {{Reclaim Finance}}, title = {{MODEL CONTRIBUTION TO THE SUSTAINABLE FINANCE STRATEGY}}, institution = {Reclaim Finance}, url = {https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/MODEL-CONTRIBUTION-TO-THE-SUSTAINABLE-FINANCE-STRATEGY.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }