The Effects of the European Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation on SRI Funds: a Comparison at a Global Level

This chapter aims to analyse the main trends that are currently characterising Sustainable Funds in the European Union. The authors document how these funds are reacting to the new European ESG Regulatory Framework, showing how recent actions carried out by the European Institutions – from the EC Action Plan on Financing Sustainable Growth, its subsequent Taxonomy Directive and Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) to the EU Green Deal and the Next Generation EU– are changing the existing financial contest into a more sustainable one. The authors argue that all these new ESG regulations represent important steps towards a new European Asset Management Industry, although they point out that a corrective intervention by the Regulator is needed to correct the inconsistency of the definition of sustainable investment and product drafted by SFDR in order to avoid greenwashing.