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Berlin (dpa) - The federal government wants to make the financial world more sustainable.
To this end, the cabinet launched a strategy for sustainable finance with 26 measures.
The government wants to create more incentives for investments in climate protection and sustainability.
This includes a traffic light for financial products that investors can use for orientation and the obligation to submit sustainability reports for listed and other large companies.
The federal pension funds are to gradually shift their investments towards sustainability.
According to the Ministry of Finance, this involves an investment volume of nine billion euros.
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It is also planned that the federal government will issue so-called green bonds with longer maturities in order to strengthen the relevant market.
The Federal Finance Agency offered investors such a paper for the first time last year.
This is used to finance federal expenditure that is based on the UN sustainability goals.
Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) spoke of setting the course for the industry in view of the 26 measures.
«Climate protection and sustainability are becoming the leitmotifs.
And that is important, because the financial market can move trillions of euros in the direction of climate protection and sustainability. "
Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) said that focusing on climate protection and sustainability was also the right strategy from an economic point of view.
Many investors have understood that they can do the best long-term business with sustainable future technologies.
The financial market needs clarity as to which investments are still worthwhile and which are too risky.
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The EU Commission has also set itself the goal of showing citizens and investors better which financial products are useful for climate protection.
To this end, it presented a package for the so-called taxonomy in April and proposed new information requirements to give investors an overview.
In doing so, however, she excluded the sensitive question of whether, for example, nuclear power is considered sustainable.
The cabinet took a clear position on this issue: “With its sustainable finance strategy, the federal government is making its position clear that nuclear power cannot be considered sustainable.
Nuclear power creates waste for 300,000 generations. "
The German credit industry, an amalgamation of the most important associations of banks and savings banks, welcomed the strategy in principle.
However, the topic must be promoted globally and at European level: "The individual measures must be meaningfully interlinked and well coordinated in order to avoid a regulatory patchwork quilt and a fragmentation of the markets."
The associations are critical of a sustainability traffic light for financial products.
"National labels lead to a fragmentation of the regulations and cause confusion," it said in the statement.
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Praise came from the GDV insurance association.
“The sustainable finance strategy is an important step towards a sustainable financial system,” said General Manager Jörg Asmussen.
The announcement that it will increasingly issue green bonds is particularly positive.
The German government's announcements met with criticism from the Greens.
The strategy is "embarrassing," said finance politician Lisa Paus.
"Instead of presenting a strategy with concrete steps, the federal government relies on the principle of hope."
There is no clear commitment to the Paris climate goals.
The environmental organization WWF spoke of a “good approach with room for improvement”.
When it comes to the application and implementation of the measures, the package of measures is still too vague.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210505-99-480608 / 3