A few days ago the Federal Environment Agency invited to an updating event on the subject of "EU Taxonomy". The introductory words by Jürgen Schneider, Head of the Climate and Energy Section at the Federal Ministry, immediately got the audience right to the point with the latest examples Shell and ExxonMobil, and yes, there is a lot going on in the field of ​​sustainability and climate protection. The last week was extremely exciting with the absolutely remarkable verdict in the Netherlands against the private oil and gas company Shell. Shell was obliged to drastically reduce its CO2 emissions by 2030! This proves that Europe takes the climate goals seriously!

Many corporations have been instrumentalizing the sustainability boom and skillfully use it as a marketing and sales strategy by simulating fair products with their own slogans and labels.

Good intent or greenwashing?
Sometimes I have the feeling that those who strive to bring good into the world are viewed particularly critically, because everything is being questioned today. And that's a good thing, because the mistrust is often absolutely justified, as countless examples testify to. 

Many trends have accelerated again due to COVID-19. The spotlight on the Green Deal was intensified as well. The European Green Deal Call now financed by "Horizon 2020" with a volume of 1 billion euros is intended to promote Europe's recovery from the coronavirus crisis by transforming green challenges into innovation opportunities. Innovative projects are intended to support the EU in recovering quickly from the crisis and also contribute to social robustness and also to green and digital reconstruction. Sounds great - the ambitious approach corresponds to the scope of the task!

Collective awakening is needed!
The opportunities that Corona brings are obvious - especially in the much-discussed environmental benefits. Not just this, but it also is related to the consciousness level, this “pandemic” is doing something to our society and we are being called to start questioning – in many different aspects. This situation has such disruptive effects that collective awakening is on the agenda and with it, the topic of ESG; therefore it looks like COVID-19 will in some way lead to a realignment

How the COVID-19 crisis has so far affected the ESG investing movement, why "Impact" is increasingly coming into focus and whether the investment fund industry could experience its own "Dieselgate" in the next few years was discussed by e-fundresearch.com in an exclusive interview with the Austrian sustainability pioneer Dr. Susanne Lederer-Pabst.

At the moment, it is evident that the coronavirus pandemic is not only causing loss of life and damage to the economy in many areas, but also huge opportunities are opening up. So could now be the time for socially responsible and effective investments to change the global economy sustainably? I say yes!

I am very happy to have been interviewed by "Fondsfrau" Anke Dembowski (who is also an editor at "Institutional Money") ​who let me share about myself and my motivation for my work in the world.
She asked me some questions, like why sustainable investments are important to me, and why I see special opportunities for women in this area. ​Thank you very much for that!

With the words: "Readers of our magazine know your column on the subject of Impact Investing, you are one of the pioneers in this field in this country", we were asked for an interview by Christine Petzwinkler, editor at Börse Social magazine.
We are happy to reveal what we are passionate about and why we are particularly committed to the financial sector.

While the European Commission is still working on a general definition on the topic of "sustainability", and in Austria working groups on the same topic are being convened, the International Finance Corporation published the first market standards for impact investing in April 2019.
The newly created market standard for impact investing by the IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, was able to win well-known signatories right from the start - we think that's quite a good start!

On February 28, Minister of Sustainable Development Köstinger and Finance Minister Löger addressed the public via a press conference. At least by optimists the presentation of concrete measures to achieve the climate goals was expected.

To be honest - we were disappointed because we actually expected more. Instead of presenting the first measures of a Green Finance Agenda, only measures were presented on how to do the same. The press conference presented as a kick-off event was nothing more than a - again - starting signal. But we‘ve already had it – haven‘t we...?!