A sustainable finance policy is important in the fight against climate change. Therefore, our strategy in this area is clear: Luxembourg is gearing its financial sector to meet the obligations arising from the Paris Agreements while taking advantage of the opportunities that green and sustainable finance opens up for the diversification of our financial centre.
The efforts undertaken in recent years in this regard by the Minister of Finance have enabled Luxembourg to position itself as a European leader in green and sustainable finance.
With the 2021 budget (including the subscription tax for investment funds investing in sustainable activities), the Minister of Finance has sent another strong signal in this respect. We are the first country in Europe to have a Sustainability Bond Framework. This enables us to clarify what we mean by sustainable finance and thus anticipate the new EU requirements. Indeed, the European taxonomy sets up a number of objective criteria to avoid greenwashing.
This anticipatory approach also contributes to strengthening the position of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange as a leading stock exchange for sustainable finance.
In addition, a number of other initiatives have emerged in recent years, in particular the Luxembourg Sustainable Finance Roadmap from 2018, which has given us a clear strategy in this area, enabling the financial centre to strengthen its leadership in this field.
In 2016, Luxembourg pioneered another initiative – together with the European Investment Bank – creating a platform to promote high impact climate action projects.
On the subject of labelling, the government has demonstrated its willingness to bring transparency to sustainable finance by supporting LuxFLAG – a pioneering agency in Europe in the field of sustainable finance labelling.
The DP fully supports sustainable policies, especially in the field of finance – and it is in this sense that the Minister of Finance will continue his work with great energy.
