The Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) launched the “Sustainable CVM Series”, a new series of guidance documents on sustainable finance. In this first volume, the Regulator presents a guide focused on the inclusion of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) issues with respect to citizen's investment decision making. The series was launched within the World Investor Week (WIW 2020).

What is Sustainable Finance?

The content informs that "usually, the term sustainable finance is used to refer to the integration of environmental, social and governance aspects in the investment decision-making processes by financial market actors". “Unlike the term sustainability, which usually focuses on environmental aspects, including climate change, the term sustainable finance is broader”, explains the document.

How to identify ESG investments?

The material indicates that “although there are several initiatives that encourage the creation of an ESG taxonomy (classification), there is still no official taxonomy for these types of investments, as this is a relatively new debate in the financial system and in the capital market”.

More broadly, “ESG investments are considered to be those that finance a sector, company or project that focuses on (E)nvironmental, (S)ocial or (G)overnance issues, such as: sustainable use of natural resources, emission carbon, energy efficiency, clean technology, inclusion and racial and gender diversity policy, human rights, transparency, ethics, policies and labor relations, data protection, independence from the board of companies, diversity in the composition of the Board of Directors, observance of the SDGs, among others ”, informs the first volume of the Sustainable CVM Series.

Securities regulators database

SSE has an interactive Securities Regulators Database to provide examples of how securities regulators are already contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. These examples can be filtered by the ten action areas found in the SSE’s Action Plan for securities regulators which is the central guidance of the SSE publication How securities regulators can support the Sustainable Development Goals. To learn more about SSE work in this area, visit our Securities Regulator workstream on the SSE website