The Platform on Sustainable Finance (PSF) recently published an independent report proposing to streamline sustainable finance for small-medium enterprises (SMEs). Specifically, the PSF proposed developing SME sustainable finance standards to help SMEs and their investors better voluntarily demonstrate their environmental sustainability performance.
The proposed framework by PSF is expected to be useful for private market firms, asset managers, and impact investors who want to assess and report sustainability classification more effectively to improve their investment experience.
Let’s explore the SME sustainable finance standards report released by the PSF in detail.
About the PSF report
The report released by PSF builds on the experience of implementing a sustainability guarantee under the InvestEU program. The voluntary SME sustainable finance standard addresses the challenges faced by SMEs in reporting their sustainability performance. It allows enterprises to disclose key performance indicators related to their climate efforts to make it easier for financial institutions to assess and support them. Initially focused on climate-related sustainability, the standard is intended to expand to other environmental objectives, bridging the gap between SMEs and sustainable finance opportunities.
“Small and medium‑sized enterprises (SMEs) are pivotal to Europe’s sustainability transition, contributing over 50% of the EU’s GDP and more than 63% of enterprise CO2 and broader GHG emissions. The transition to a net zero, resilient, and environmentally sustainable economy hinges on SMEs’ ability to access the necessary financing to decarbonise, build climate‑resilience, green their operations, and develop sustainable products and services. Despite their critical role, SMEs face significant challenges in securing external financing for sustainability efforts.” — said PSF in the report announcement.
Key aspects of the SME Sustainable Finance Standard
- Specifically, the standard proposed by PSF aims to:
- Simplify the classification of sustainable loans and investments for SMEs.
- Support banks and financiers in providing sustainable financing to SMEs.
- Encourage voluntary reporting of sustainability data in a less burdensome way.
- The framework applies to three categories:
- Activities: The Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act includes economic activities and additional recognized sustainable activities.
- Enterprises: SMEs that incorporate sustainable business practices or hold climate-related certifications.
- Investments: Specific projects or measures aimed at sustainability improvements.
- The report proposes an online tool (similar to the EIF Sustainability Guarantee and EIB Green Checker tools) to help SMEs assess their financing eligibility.
- With the proposed standard, the PSF suggested making the EU Taxonomy more SME-friendly by grouping similar activities, removing ambiguity, clarifying references, simplifying reporting requirements, and providing tools to assist.
Next steps
On March 27, 2025, the Platform on Sustainable Finance will present the report in a webinar.
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