Ecology Push For Policy Changes For A Sustainable Finance Future

Last week, the Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV), which Ecology is a member of, in collaboration with Finance Watch and Mission 2020, published a new report called ‘New Pathways – Building Blocks for a Sustainable Finance Future for Europe’. The report will contribute to the work of the European Union’s (EU) High Level Group on Sustainable Finance which is currently advising the European Commission on their approach to supporting the growth of sustainable finance.

The report includes a number of ideas which aim to ‘repurpose’ finance by maintaining the right balance between economic, social and environmental needs. These include:

• Improving transparency so that more people can understand how finance matters to them

• Ensuring that regulatory requirements, such as those for capital, take a more holistic view and take economic, social and environmental impacts into account

• Encouraging a diverse financial ecosystem with different business models and approaches to finance, which will help meet the Paris Climate Agreement targets and the UN Sustainable Development Goals by supporting a sustainable economy

• Positioning sustainability as an exciting opportunity to create value for the future by promoting sustainable leadership and encouraging training and development in managing sustainability at every level of the financial sector

At Ecology we helped contribute to the development of the report and we look forward to seeing how policy makers will respond to the ideas outlined in it.