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The Business Challenges to Financing an Inclusive & Green Transition

  • At the first Focus Group of the leadership initiative “Financing a Green and Just Transition” on 28th April, companies Unipol SAI, State Street, Solvay, and the Italian CSR Network Impronta Etica zoomed in on social inclusion and equality in transition plans and investment.

  • Outcomes of the Leaders Group will be presented at the high-level plenary of the European SDG Summit 2022 on 12 October.

On 28th April, CSR Europe’s Leaders Group hosted its first focus group to tackle the social dimension of financing the green and digital transition in Europe. Leading companies Unipol SAI, State Street, Solvay, and the Italian CSR networks Impronta Etica focused on the integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) concerns into investments and transition plans.

Key identified challenges included:

  • Limited internal knowledge about Just Transition.

    Training is needed to bring companies up to date with the correct information to disclose, especially for Small and Medium Enterprises that often have limited awareness and funding to dedicate to sustainability. At the same time, aligning the entire value chain to the current thresholds and targets of the Paris Agreement remains challenging.

  • Clear guidelines for action are needed.

    Access to quality and comparable data for investment is not available and stakeholders would benefit from a standardized framework to evaluate transition plans. The situation is also worsened by the lack of a best practices database for reference.

  • Social washing

    The practice of falsely overstating the impact of an investment on labour rights or human rights still represents a major threat for investors and could expose them to unseen reputational risks. A consensus was found on the need to establish a common language between various stakeholders and the crucial role of multistakeholder dialogues as a means to transition to an inclusive society.

 

NEXT STEPS

The next focus group of the Leaders Group “Financing a Green and Just Transition” is set for June 16th. Leaders will have the opportunity to present first-hand best practices and insights on Just Transition plans and social investments in light of the challenging transition of Europe’s economy to net zero.

Outcomes and learnings of the Leaders Group will be presented at the high-level plenary of the European SDG Summit, taking place virtually on October 12th.

 

For more information:

Ilaria Orsi

Project Manager

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UPCOMING EVENTS

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