Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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112. To ask the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to the final report by the high level expert group on sustainable finance published by the European Commission in 2018; his views on the report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20342/19]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The final report of the high level group was published in January 2018, with the Vice-President of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis choosing Dublin as the location in which to provide the European Commission’s first response to the report. I was present when Vice-President Dombrovskis shared that response at the European Financial Forum in Dublin Castle on 31 January 2018.

From the perspective of both EU level and Ireland’s individual decarbonisation targets, the attainment of emission reduction obligations under the EU 2030 framework will require considerable levels of sustainable investment. As the scale of the investment is beyond what can be facilitated through public sector funding, the mobilisation and reorientation of private capital flows towards sustainable development will be vital.  In that regard, the vision informed by the high level report as set out in the Commission’s Action Plan on Financing Sustainable Growth, to embed sustainability throughout Europe’s financial system and provide transparency to market participants and investors is a welcome development.

To take forward the vision outlined the Action Plan, in May 2018 the Commission brought forward a package of legislative proposals to implement several key actions as contained in its Action Plan. The proposals which are still being progressed at EU level, and on which Ireland has being engaging constructively include:  

1) A proposal for a regulation to establish a unified classification framework ('taxonomy'), to determine what can be considered an environmentally sustainable economic activity;

2) A proposal for a regulation on disclosures relating to sustainable investments and sustainability risks and amending Directive (EU) 2016/2341 and;

3) A proposal relating to the creation of EU Climate Transition Benchmarks and EU Paris-aligned Benchmarks

 The latter two proposals have been approved by the European Parliament, while the taxonomy proposal is currently being progressed at Working Party level.

As Deputies will be aware, Sustainable Finance is also an area which the Irish Government has been active. Sustainable finance is one of three cross-cutting priorities in the Government’s new strategy for the international financial services sector, Ireland for Finance, which the Government published in April. It is cross-cutting because it will be embedded in the actions undertaken across the four central pillars of the strategy, namely operating environment; technology and innovation; talent; and communications and promotion. This builds on and enhances work completed under the previous strategy, IFS2020. I would highlight that both include actions targeted at realising the ambition set out in the Commission’s Action Plan, as well the Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.