News & Analysis

ESG round-up: Triodos warns of ‘green bleaching’ due to SFDR requirements

The latest developments in sustainable finance: Singapore issues longest-ever sovereign green bond, PFA named class representative in Meta lawsuit.

Dominic Webb

5 August 2022

Some sustainable funds are opting for Article 6 status under the EU’s anti-greenwashing Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation (SFDR) to avoid additional reporting requirements, according to Triodos Investment Management’s impact manager Nikkie Pelzer. In an interview posted on the firm’s website, she is quoted as stating: “Their [non-sustainable designated Article 6 funds] reporting effort is considerably less. This explains why you now even see sustainable funds opting for article 6, leading to green bleaching. That’s the world upside down.” Under SFDR, funds that claim sustainability credentials (Articles 8 and 9) are required to make additional disclosures.

Singapore has raised S$2.35 billion (€1.71 billion; $1.74 billion) from its inaugural green bond, which carries the longest-ever maturity for a sovereign green deal. The order book was 2.26x oversubscribed for the 50-year deal, which carries a coupon of 3.04 percent. The country has now opened books for a further S$50 million offering to retail investors, bringing the total raise to S$2.4 billion.

Denmark’s PFA has been appointed as representative in a class action lawsuit against Meta, which is seeking compensation for losses caused by allegedly misleading information provided to the market. The lawsuit alleges that the tech giant misled investors on a number of occasions, including on how an algorithm change intended to increase user engagement led to misinformation and harmful content of various types becoming disproportionately widespread. In a statement, PFA said the case had a sustainable development interest as it would ensure that Meta acted in a way which reinforced SDG 3 (health and wellbeing).

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