ESAs develop standards for fossil gas and nuclear energy investment disclosures

Written by Adam Cadle

03/10/2022

The European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs), through the Joint Committee, have developed regulatory technical standards on the content and presentation of information to be provided about the exposure of financial products to investments in fossil gas and nuclear energy.

The standards relate to the disclosure of information to be provided in pre-contractual documents, on websites and in periodic reports, and come under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).

Following the request of the European Commission on 8 April, the aim of the amendments is to ensure that disclosures about the degree to which investments are in taxonomy-aligned activities allow for full transparency in fossil gas and nuclear energy activities.

This particularly relates to the proportion such investments represent within all investments and in environmentally sustainable economic activities.

The ESAs have also proposed some additional “minor technical corrections” to the delegated regulation.

They noted that the existing sector exposure disclosures requiring for periodic disclosures would now include fossil gas and nuclear energy.

The report stated: “The changes to the pre-contractual templates include a yes/no question to identify that a product intends to invest in gas and/or nuclear taxonomy-aligned activities.

“If the product intends to invest in such activities, the graphical representation will require the identification of the relevant proportions. If the product does not intend to invest in such activities, such breakdowns are not required in the graphical representation and the existing graphical representations from the already published version of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1288 should be used instead.

“A footnote was added to the yes/no question to provide an indication of certain conditions under which such activities are aligned with the EU taxonomy. Similar changes were inserted in the templates for periodic disclosures.

“Considering that the European Commission’s Climate Delegated Act applies from 1 January 2023 and that the amendment of the disclosure framework is urgent, also based on the mandate received from the European Commission, the ESAs have not conducted open public consultations or analysis of the potential related costs and benefits and have proposed that the entry into force should take place the day after the publication of the delegated act in the Official Journal, rather than the standard 20 days."

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