European Commission Publishes Guidelines on Reporting Climate-Related Information

On 18 June 2019, the European Commission announced that, as part of its Sustainable Finance Action Plan, it has published new guidelines for companies on how to report climate-related information alongside an accompanying summary and FAQ document and three new reports by the Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance (TEG):

• a final report on the EU taxonomy, which links to the EU's proposed Regulation on the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment;
• a final report on the EU Green Bond Standard, which recommends the criteria for issuing a green bond; and
• an interim report on climate benchmarks, which sets out the methodology and minimum technical requirements for indices and disclosure requirements related to environmental, social and governance factors by benchmark providers.