- Client: European Commission – DG REFORM
- Implementation period: October, 2021 - August, 2022 (Ongoing)
- Geographic coverage: Belgium
- Theme: Climate Change
- Topic: Climate Finance
- Experts: Frank Gérard, Koen Rademaekers, Jeroen van der Laan, Matthew Smith, Tatiana Cuervo Blanco, Tessa Zell, Henjo Jagtenberg, Rachel Lamothe
Greening finance: towards a Belgian Sustainable Finance Strategy
This project aims to develop a scoping study on policy options for a Belgian Sustainable Finance Strategy. Following the launch of the new EU Strategy for Sustainable Finance, and building on a growing number of national initiatives, Belgian authorities wish to develop a federal Strategy to improve the quantity and quality of sustainable finance from the public and private sector.
The Strategy is motivated by three key objectives:
- Strengthening the public sector as an investor and enabler for the alignment with the Paris Agreement;
- Structuring the existing efforts of financial actors to take into account ESG factors in their investment decisions. The support to financial actors will not only cover the development of financial instruments and vehicles, but will address more broadly concrete challenges such as capacity and data availability;
- Equipping Belgian actors with adequate tools and regulatory support for upcoming European regulations (Taxonomy, CSRD, SFDR). The Strategy intends to ensure the readiness of Belgian actors while steering them beyond European ambitions, and towards Belgian priorities.
The realization of these objectives will rely on existing initiatives, labels, best-practices and contributions of both financial and local economic stakeholders. Indeed, the Strategy clearly builds on the active participation of all relevant stakeholders -including sector representatives, SMEs, NGOs and academia- throughout the project. To this end, the Trinomics team designed a participation method based on thematic workshops, questionnaires and regular interviews.
Ultimately, the project will deliver a series of weighted policy options for a federal Belgian Strategy for Sustainable Finance, including regulatory and technical assistance options. It should allow a rapid and broad take-up by all relevant stakeholders to support Belgium in the implementation of its climate and sustainability objectives.
