Book contents
- Making the Financial System Sustainable
- Making the Financial System Sustainable
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Boxes
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Capitalism Meets Multilateralism
- 2 Public Meets Private
- 3 Central Banking and Climate Change
- 4 Sustainable Finance and Prudential Regulation of Financial Institutions
- 5 Transparency and Accountability Standards for Sustainable and Responsible Investments
- 6 Environmental Risk Analysis by Financial Institutions
- 7 Sustainable Governance and Leadership
- 8 ESG Risks and Opportunities
- 9 Active and Responsible
- 10 Passive-Aggressive or Just Engaged
- 11 Financing a Just Transition
- 12 Sustainable Finance for Citizens
- 13 Individual Impact Investors
- 14 Strengthening Green Finance by Better Integrating the Social Dimensions in the European Union’s Sustainable Finance Laws
- Index
- References
13 - Individual Impact Investors
The Silenced Majority
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 October 2020
- Making the Financial System Sustainable
- Making the Financial System Sustainable
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Boxes
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Capitalism Meets Multilateralism
- 2 Public Meets Private
- 3 Central Banking and Climate Change
- 4 Sustainable Finance and Prudential Regulation of Financial Institutions
- 5 Transparency and Accountability Standards for Sustainable and Responsible Investments
- 6 Environmental Risk Analysis by Financial Institutions
- 7 Sustainable Governance and Leadership
- 8 ESG Risks and Opportunities
- 9 Active and Responsible
- 10 Passive-Aggressive or Just Engaged
- 11 Financing a Just Transition
- 12 Sustainable Finance for Citizens
- 13 Individual Impact Investors
- 14 Strengthening Green Finance by Better Integrating the Social Dimensions in the European Union’s Sustainable Finance Laws
- Index
- References
Summary
Recent research across European countries indicates that a large majority of individual investors – between 60% and 75%, depending on how the questions are framed – want to invest sustainably. Consumers say that they are willing to give up return for environmental outcomes: a recent survey of German and French retail investors suggests that 64% would accept a sacrifice of -5% on their pension benefits. In this context, the €97 trillion question is obviously why most of them still invest in non-sustainable investment products. This chapter is an attempt to answer that question, with a focus on upcoming EU regulations such as the Ecolabel for financial products. Covering the results from our upcoming research reports, we cover issues including consumers’ sustainability objectives, mis-selling of financial products, lack of voting rights on sustainability issues, environmental impact claims and deceptive green marketing. We describe the main issues with the European policy response, and how they may end up amplifying existing problems – by creating confusion in relation to how green financial products are understood and how to deal with the expectations of impact-focused consumers.
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- Making the Financial System Sustainable , pp. 276 - 298Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020