The European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) has praised the freshy released plans for a European Green Deal, labelling them as ‘ambitious’ and ‘welcome’.
In particular the organisation spoke positively about the contributions of EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen and the work of her team in developing the provisional political agreement.
Tanguy van de Werve, director general of EFAMA noted the importance of building a significant consensus between all the relevant parties.
He said: “The European Green Deal, with the active support from the Member States and the European Parliament, has the potential to be a real game-changer for our society, and which could go a long way to making Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050.
The organisation reiterated the importance of publicly available ESG data on investment companies if the targets of the deal were to be reached.
Mr van der Werve explained: “As the voice of the Asset Management industry in Europe, we wholeheartedly support the European Commission in this initiative. We are committed to playing our role as an industry in channelling the necessary funds for projects which are essential to its success. We would also stress that robust, comparable, reliable and publicly available ESG data on investee companies are a prerequisite for this to happen.”
The European Green Deal was revealed to the European Comission to the European Parliament, the European Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions earlier this month. In a presentation, Ms von der Leyen requested that member states and parliamentary members in Brussels back her proposals.
The proposals detail a potential pathway to making the European Union’s economy environmentally sustainable. They attempt to turn fundamental environmental challenges into economic opportunities, and ensure every aspect of the European Union’s economy is assessed from a more sustainable perspective. Chief among its ambitions are emission reductions targets of 50-55 percent by 2030 across the continent, and for energy to be generated 100 percent by renewable sources by 2050.
In June a net zero-carbon pledge by 2050 was blocked by representatives from Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.
