EU Publishes Technical Advice on Disclosure Requirements for New Climate Benchmarks

The European Commission's Technical Expert Group has published a final report on EU climate benchmarks and benchmark Environmental, Social and Governance disclosures. The Commission set up the TEG on Sustainable Finance when it published its legislative proposal for amending the EU Benchmark Regulation as part of its action plan on Sustainable Finance. The proposed legislation will create two new categories of low carbon benchmarks: the EU Climate Transition Benchmark (EU CTB) and the EU Paris-aligned Benchmark (EU PAB). It also includes ESG disclosure requirements for all investment benchmarks. The final text of the proposal has been agreed and it is expected to be published in October/November 2019.

The TEG report provides technical advice to the Commission on: (i) the minimum ESG disclosure requirements for all benchmarks, except interest rates and currency benchmarks, and specific ESG disclosure requirements for EU CTBs and EU PABs; and (ii) the minimum technical requirements for the methodology of EU CTBs and EU PABs. In addition, the report includes recommendations on other areas of work that are connected to the benchmark ESG disclosures, such as the proposed EU Classification System of Sustainable Activities (i.e. the EU Taxonomy) and changes to the disclosure requirements in the Markets in Financial Instruments package to take into account ESG disclosures.

View the report.

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