Frankfurt / Main (dpa) – After submitting its catalog of measures, the Advisory Board for Sustainable Finance expects a boost for issues such as climate and environmental protection in Germany. “We are very confident that many of our recommendations will be taken up,” said the Germany boss of the alternative bank Triodos, Georg Schürmann, the German press agency in Frankfurt. “Sustainability is a topic that has arrived in the middle of society. No government can escape it.”
The so-called Sustainable Finance Advisory Board was commissioned by the Federal Government to develop proposals for the further development of the financial market in the areas of the environment, social issues and good corporate governance. On Thursday, the committee made up of 38 representatives from finance and the real economy, science and civil society presented its final report with 31 recommendations for action.
According to this, for example, state funding for new Riester contracts for old-age provision should be linked to ethical, social and ecological criteria. The advisory board also proposed, among other things, that income from investments assessed as sustainable up to a maximum amount should be exempt from tax.
“Only with a broad package of measures will Germany have the chance to catch up and become one of the leading financial centers for a sustainable economy,” said Advisory Board member Schürmann. He emphasized: “We need a binding classification system for what is sustainable and what is not. Brown systems must also be made recognizable as such.”
Climate protection is becoming increasingly important in the financial sector. At the end of June, for example, various banks in Germany committed themselves in an initiative driven by Triodos Bank and WWF to align their loan and investment portfolios in line with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. The core of the Paris Agreement of 2015 is to limit global warming to well below two degrees compared to the pre-industrial level. At the beginning of December, the German savings banks declared that they wanted to contribute to reducing the amount of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) being emitted and being managed in a more environmentally friendly way overall.
Environmental and climate protectors regularly doubt that such voluntary commitments are sufficient. “The time is over when sustainability could be used as a fig leaf”, says Triodos Germany boss Schürmann. “The question is of course still: How authentic is that with individual providers?”
Overall, however, it is to be welcomed that the topic has “reached the mainstream,” said Schürmann. “The sustainability banks in Germany are too small to be able to serve the entire market. It’s a bit like the organic shops: Today there are organic products in every supermarket and yet organic suppliers are prospering.”
Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft (DK) described the final report of the advisory board as a “good contribution” to the development of a national sustainable finance strategy. “However, politicians must not lose sight of the fact that, although banks play a very important role in the transformation towards a climate-friendly and sustainable economy, it primarily requires efforts in the real economy to adapt production processes and products in a climate-friendly manner,” commented Sparkassen- President Helmut Schleweis. This year, the German Savings Banks and Giro Association (DSGV) is in charge of the umbrella organization for the five major banking associations in Germany.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210226-99-600455 / 2
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