Meeting the Paris Agreement will require a major shift in financial investments away from fossil fuels towards mitigation and climate resilience. The combination of an increasing volume and demand in sustainable investments on the one hand, and a lack of harmonised criteria to characterise these investments on the other, led ISO to initiate the development of a series of international standards on environmental finance. Addressed primarily at financial institutions and institutional investors, these standards could make a substantial contribution to the implementation of the Paris Agreement and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
If Europe is serious about becoming the first climate neutral continent by 2050, circular economy needs to be at the forefront of the European Green Deal. For this, Europe must implement an ecodesign approach for sectors with the highest environmental impact, stressed ECOS, the environmental NGO expert in ecodesign and product policy.
On 11 December, the European Commission will release its Green Deal, and according to high level officials, circular economy is set to be the number one priority for Europe. This is a move ECOS fully supports, as detailed in our priority checklist published today.
Together with over 50 NGOs ECOS signed a statement with ten priority issues on the EU "taxonomy" for sustainable investments launched by WWF today. The upcoming taxonomy aims to show which economic activities are sustainable to help guide investors and prevent greenwashing.
