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ARTICLE · 27 DECEMBER 2019

Major Steps Forward For EU Sustainable Finance

Jones Day
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The Situation: Three major pillars of the EU action plan on sustainable finance ("EU Action Plan") at varying stages of development have taken steps forward.

European UnionFinance and Banking
Jones Day
Jones Day
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In Short

The Situation: Three major pillars of the EU action plan on sustainable finance ("EU Action Plan") at varying stages of development have taken steps forward.

The Result: We now have a regulation on climate-related benchmarks and a political agreement has been reached on the European Union ("EU") classification system for sustainable activities, or taxonomy. The European Banking Authority ("EBA") is also now pushing for action at the European banks' level.

Looking Ahead: The benchmarks regulation will become applicable in April 2020. Final rules on the taxonomy are expected early next year. The banking industry will be engaging more directly on possible regulatory changes with the EBA.

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