White Paper from Eurosif and the University of Hamburg

Classification Scheme for Sustainable Investments

Over the last few months, Eurosif and its SIFs members have worked together with Academics from the University of Hamburg to elaborate this White Paper. It captures the transition contribution of different investment approaches based on the notion of investor impact. It is a first and essential step towards developing a scheme that can serve as the classification logic in future market studies. It goes beyond the current ability of concepts used in the SFDR, the EU Taxonomy and MiFID II which focus predominantly on identifying companies that are already sustainable, aligned or have a positive company impact.

The structure of this white paper is first, to focus on the dimensions and criteria that serve as the foundation for the new classification; and second, to introduce a new classification scheme and elaborate on the underlying logic.

Important: This classification is not to be an implementation tool for regulatory requirements. Its aim is rather to illustrate how investments accelerate the just and sustainable transition of the real economy. An important next step is to develop a more detailed assessment system to evaluate which investments qualify for which of the classification’s categories.