According to a recently published regulatory standard, only those funds that invest 100 percent in sustainable projects can call themselves sustainable.
(Photo: dpa)
Frankfurt Many green investments apparently no longer meet the stricter requirements of the EU and supervisors. A whole range of fund providers are currently relativizing the sustainability promises of their products. Both the market leader Blackrock and numerous other financial service providers are sorting products that were previously characterized by a particularly high level of sophistication into the standard area. They are therefore considered less sustainable.
“This development is becoming more dynamic, the number of reclassifications is increasing,” says Ronald Kölsch, who deals with the topic at the Forum for Sustainable Investments. This is a sensitive issue for the financial industry: Green investments are considered to be probably the greatest growth opportunity for the fund industry.
But the definition of what exactly is meant by sustainable has so far remained vague. The classification of the funds is governed by the EU Disclosure Regulation, which has been in effect since March of last year. Accordingly, suppliers must categorize their products themselves: Those with a particular sustainability impact fall under Article Nine of the regulation, the less ambitious under Chapter Eight.
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