One of the growing concerns among top executives is the increasing number of regulatory actions in the area of sustainable finance. For instance, the number of regulatory actions that are required under the EU Commission Action Plan: Financing Sustainable Growth count in the hundreds.

These eventual expectations are directly related to the December 2019 entry into force of the Regulation 2019/2088 on Sustainability-Related Disclosure in the Financial Services Sector and the Regulation 2019/2089 on EU Climate Transition Benchmarks and EU Paris-Aligned Benchmarks.

Further reinforcing the sustainable finance regulation trend will be the EU Sustainability Taxonomy Regulation, which is expected to be adopted by the EU Parliament before Spring 2020, as well as future regulation on the Green Bond Standard and the EU Ecolabel for Financial Products.

To help you maintain an overview of the evolving status of relevant initiatives, check out the Policy Outlook EU Action Plan on Sustainable Finance Overview.

Also, take a look at the deadlines out forward by the European Green Deal, which was published by the new EU Commission in December 2019. Among other elements, the EU Commission announced that:

• by autumn 2020, it will present a renewed sustainable finance strategy;
• by the end of 2020, it will undertake a review of Directive 2014/95 on the Disclosure of Non-Financial and Diversity Information by Large Undertakings and Groups; and
• starting in 2020, it will present initiatives to screen and benchmark green budgeting practices of member states and the EU.

Additionally, European Supervisory Authorities are expected to focus on the topic of sustainable finance throughout 2020. For example, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), in its Strategic Orientation 2020-2022, identified the promotion of sustainable finance and long-term oriented capital markets as part of its main objectives for this three-year period.