Sustainable Finance Committee of the German Federal Government presents final report

Chaired by Karsten Löffler, Head of the UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate & Sustainable Energy Finance at Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, the Sustainable Finance Committee of the German Federal Government presented its final report today in a national press conference. The Committee has identified five key action areas:

1. A reliable policy framework in Germany and the EU to provide businesses in the financial and non-financial sectors with a coherent, sustainability-focused compass
2. Integrated, forward-looking corporate reporting where transparency and comparability serve as the basis for sustainable investment decisions and holistic risk management
3. Research and systematic knowledge development that respond to the changing competencies required of those responsible for the regulation, management and supervision of businesses, financial advice and the general public
4. Sustainability-focused financial products that meet investors’ growing demand for sustainable solutions
5. Consolidation of the institutional frameworks required to provide continuous support for this transformation process

For the Sustainable Finance Committee, the report’s recommendations regarding corporate reporting and the broader information infrastructure are key leveraging factors which should be addressed as a matter of priority. The Committee also believes that making sustainability a key criterion of public bond issues and capital investments would be an especially effective strategy. At the same time, with respect to implementing these recommendations, the Committee is calling for an international mindset that is not limited to exclusively German interests. The full report is available for download here.

Karsten Löffler, Head of the UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate & Sustainable Energy Finance at Frankfurt School and Chair of the Sustainable Finance Committee of the German Federal Government: “I’m very proud of the Sustainable Finance Committee’s achievement. Now it is up to the German government to adopt the template and turn our implementation-focused recommendations into actual policy. The German government must be mindful of the fact that along with financial-market measures, the key criteria for optimally positioning the financial sector in this Great Transformation are meaningful reporting and farsighted corporate governance. If we want to ensure that Germany and Europe remain competitive with the USA and China, we must fund today’s economic innovations that promise to build us a good position in tomorrow’s global marketplace.”

The Sustainable Finance Committee of the German Federal Government was established in 2019 to help develop a national sustainable finance strategy. The Committee’s objective is to turn Germany into a leading centre of sustainable finance capable of responding competitively to the challenges posed by the climate crisis, digitisation and globalisation. The financial sector has a key role to play here, as it must mobilise the vast resources needed for this transformation of the German economy.