Sustainability is a widely recognized model for the future development of Europe. In this sense, finance is a key lever for achieving the ambitious common goals of economic prosperity, social inclusion and environmental recovery. The Paris аccord demonstrates the priority and urgency of mitigating climate change claimed by world leaders, including the EU. European energy can be carbon-neutral before 2050 and contribute to the wider implementation of low-carbon targets, including electrification of key economic sectors (industry, transport, buildings).
Achieving this long-term goal in a cost-effective way requires significant investment efforts. According to the EC, over the next decade, Europe will need some € 177 billion a year to realize low-carbon investments to meet the EU`s climate and energy goals. For the period 2031-2050, an annual average of € 1.3 trillion will be needed in the scenario of an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, according to the European Commission`s Long-Term Strategy.
There are three elements that Eurelectric (Europe`s largest electricity industry) points to in Enabling sustainable investments through sustainable finance to support investment through sustainable funding: Firstly, sustainable funding should be coherent with other EU instruments such as the scheme for emissions trading, secondly, financial stability and the pricing of financial markets must be strengthened, improving the assessment and management of long-term material and non-material risks, in the form of cost - including those related to environmental, social and governance factors, and lastly, the administrative costs of financial and non-financial liabilities of companies should not increase.
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