Federal Councilor Maurer: Sustainable finance needs transparency
According to Federal Councilor Ueli Maurer, the foundations for sustainable financing of the various economic sectors are “transparency, credibility and the setting of standards”. That said the magistrate this Monday in Geneva at the opening of the conference series “Building Bridges”.
the essentials in brief
- During the week, 77 events on various topics in the field of “Sustainable Finance” will take place as part of the conference.
Take part in NGOs, international organizations as well as actors from the financial sector (banks, insurance companies, asset managers, investors) and from public administration.
The initiator of the event is the banker Patrick Odier. According to him, Geneva is currently the financial center where the way customers invest is changing the most. The focus lately has been on sustainable investments. Their volume in Switzerland grew by 31 percent to over 1.5 billion francs between 2019 and 2020.
“We want to maintain this pace of growth,” continues the Geneva banker, but without committing to a specific goal. In future, however, the focus will be on things like adjusting the mechanisms for setting the price of CO2.
Federal Councilor Maurer also saw it this way: “We need standards in order to set a price for CO2”. Last June, the CO2 law was rejected in a referendum in Switzerland. Therefore, next year, a new draft will go into consultation, which should lead to a law “in one or two years”, according to the Federal Council.
Odier pointed out the paradoxical situation that exists with CO2. Because in many places there are still subsidies for the fossil fuel industry despite the threat of climate change.
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