Fundamentals of ESG disclosures and reporting

It is widely recognised that the EU taxonomy is one of the most significant regulatory developments in sustainable finance and will have wide ranging implications for investors and issuers working in the EU and beyond.

To advance the objectives of climate change mitigation and adaptation, the technical screening criteria of the taxonomy will determine when an economic activity can be considered sustainable. Other jurisdictions are likely to follow the lead of the EU Taxonomy in the future in developing their own sustainable economies. These developments are being driven to help investors make better informed decisions and to discourage greenwashing by all financial market participants.

This course focuses on these emerging ESG disclosure and reporting regimes and examines what fund managers need to do to avoid accusations of ‘Greenwashing’.

COURSE AGENDA

The technical screening data and taxonomy-alignment

• Taxonomies as classification systems
• Understanding the importance of double materiality and dynamic materiality
• Applying the technical screening data

The circular economy and the environmental performance thresholds

• What is the circular economy and why is it important for sustainability?
• Links between the circular economy and environmental performance thresholds
• ‘SLIC’ and ‘CLIC’ models of circularity

SFDR and NFRD

• Sustainable disclosure regulations as mechanisms to capture and mitigate sustainability risks
• Why financial market participants are so important in reducing sustainability risks
• Classifying financial products according to their ESG and sustainable characteristics

Principal adverse impacts

• What is a principal adverse impact statement and why is it important?
• Incorporating sustainability risks and principal adverse impacts into an investment process
• Formulating due diligence policies around principal adverse impacts