2023-11-07 19:36:40
In 2016, the Ministry of Finance launched the first public label for savers including “environmental, social and governance principles”. Eight years later, Bercy announced, in a communiqué from Tuesday November 7, a new version of this Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) label: « more ambitious » and making “climate impact” the “key principle”.
The Paris Agreement as a trajectory
Will be excluded “companies that exploit coal or unconventional hydrocarbons, as well as those that launch new projects for the exploration, exploitation or refining of hydrocarbons (oil or gas)”, it is specified. Companies will also have to provide “a transition plan aligned with the Paris Agreement”.
In addition to this climatic principle, the ISR label will retain its general character with “reinforced selectivity on other environmental, social and societal criteria, as well as governance”. It is up to management companies to ensure “to limit the negative impacts of their investments”.
Details expected in November
“We must offer a simple and effective label to allow the French to give meaning to their savings, declares Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of the Economy. This is what we are doing with this new ISR label, in which the fight against global warming is becoming essential. We will thus allow savers to take into account the ecological transition and businesses to finance their decarbonization more easily. »
The new repository will be published “by the end of November” for entry into force in March 2024. It was based on the recommendations of stakeholders (companies, management companies, experts, etc.) commissioned in October 2021 to “strengthen the ambition and requirements of the ISR label” under the leadership of Michèle Pappalardo, former president of Ademe (Environment and Energy Management Agency).
“A courageous decision”
The Fair association, which brings together actors involved in impact finance, participated in these consultations. “We asked to exclude fossil fuels. But we feared a weak decision, as is often the case for public labels involving a large number of players. This is not the case. And it is a courageous decision on the part of the minister”greets Frédéric Tiberghien, its president.
“This exclusion is a strong signalbecause it shows that the energy sector needs to evolve. This is a clear message sent to other countries and to the entire financial community. An arbitration of an ecological nature intended to change the morals of the sector”he adds.
A wait-and-see financial sector
Today, 1,174 funds are labeled SRI for a total assets of 773 billion euros, specifies Bercy, recalling that the latter are “systematically referenced in life insurance units of account and retirement savings plans” since the Pacte law (action plan for business growth and transformation) of 2019.
Banks intend to continue to respond to the strong demand for responsible savings, like BNP, which estimates that “the label must remain general” so as not to become a “niche product”. If the bank estimates ” logic ” to increase the “label requirement level”she also considers that he must “keep it simple to be understandable by French savers”.
“We are already analyzing the probable impacts of the evolution of the label with a view to adapting our funds, and in particular the new exclusions confirmed by the minister this morningspecifies the BNP.We are awaiting the publication of the final framework because it is the combination of the different developments (exclusions, selectivity, definition of investment universes, consideration of the transition, commitment, etc.) which will determine the impact on the funds.
The bank is also calling for “a European label”or the minimum “a common framework to bring together national labels around the same principles”.
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