Guideline revision: Sustainable financial products
The revision of the Austrian Ecolabel Guideline for Sustainable Financial Products (UZ 49) has been taking place since the beginning of the year with the involvement of around 300 people from the financial sector, experts, public administration and civil society.
Background to the revision
The Ecolabel criteria for financial products have been in place since 2004 and are revised every four years. The VKI is leading the revision of the content of the guideline.
In the case of the Sustainable Financial Products Directive, a number of significant changes were proposed and put forward for discussion in the course of an online discussion in the summer and at the Technical Committee on 27 September 2023. Significant changes include the:
- Expansion of the product group that can be labelled to include green loans
- Expansion of exclusion criteria (e.g. in the area of fossil fuels or tobacco as well as in the area of country exclusion criteria)
- Inclusion of a criterion with reference to the EU taxonomy
- Formulation of new requirements for engagement activities
- Integration of impact aspects in the bonus section
Organisational
If you would like to make a technical contribution, please write a short message with the subject " Revision of sustainable financial products" to umweltzeichen@vki.at
The new guideline will be voted on by the Ecolabel Advisory Board on 13 December 2023.
Here you can find the second draft of the guidline, which was the basis for the discussion in the Technical Committee on 27 September 2023.
Here you can find the presentation of the VKI to the expert committee as well as the minutes of the expert committee.