The Dutch Climate Act stipulates that every five years the government must draw up a climate plan. In each case, the plan looks ahead ten years to achieving the goal of being climate neutral by 2050. Because asset managers contribute to accelerating the energy and climate transition, we responded to this consultation.
In our response, we endorse the need for ambitious, coherent and targeted policies to get and stay on track for the 2050 climate neutrality target set in the Climate Act. Although the Climate Plan is not primarily aimed at the financial sector, the sector does play an important facilitating and supporting role. For example, the Climate Plan mentions the importance of private finance in achieving the climate goals and also refers to the Financial Sector Climate Commitment. From DUFAS we endorse the importance of this contribution. However, we see in the proposed Climate Plan a number of focal points to further increase this contribution.
Predictable and reliable public policy
Asset managers can contribute to the acceleration of energy and other climate-related transitions. In addition to the mandate obtained from clients for this purpose, it is also important that predictable and reliable government policies are drawn up. We therefore believe that clear frameworks and (sectoral) transition paths should be defined at the European level. There must also be a certain degree of certainty, both for companies that are committed to the transitions and for (cross-border) investors in the transitions.
Ensure sufficient supply of sustainable investments
Sustainability begins in the real economy. If clients of asset managers want to make investment portfolios more sustainable, this can only happen effectively if the companies being invested in are sustainable. Thus, given the role of asset managers, it is essential that there is sufficient supply to invest in economic activities and projects that can follow a clear and substantiated transition path, that are already sustainable or that are supporting transition efforts. Only, there is currently no clear (European) framework that uniformly defines and facilitates transition investing. This is an impeding factor for bringing to the market investment solutions that can contribute to transitions.
Improve opportunities for public-private financing
From DUFAS we underline the important role of private and public-private financing in climate and energy transitions. Under the banner of the Climate Commitment, we are now working with InvestNL to further elaborate opportunities to unlock private financing for specific climate and energy topics. This is also mentioned in the Climate Plan. Together with InvestNL, funding bottlenecks are being identified and, if possible, translated into appropriate instruments or interventions. For asset managers, it is important here to connect to the relevant characteristics of the (internationally operating) asset management sector, which differs greatly, for example, from the role, responsibilities and position of asset owners such as pension funds.
