In this episode of the Backstage series, Bruegel's Non-Resident Fellow Dirk Schoenmaker welcomes Molly Scott Cato, a Green party MEP for South West England, for a conversation on the EU's plan to transition towards sustainable finance.

To achieve the EU's 2030 targets agreed in Paris, such as a 40% cut in greenhouse gas emissions, in May 2018, the Commission announced its action plan on sustainable finance. Its aims are, among others, to facilitate sustainable investment and improve the availability of information on investments carbon footprint.  

Molly Scott-Cato in conversation with Dirk Schoenmaker outlines the details of the plan and elaborates on the steps necessary for the transition from brown to green finance, from vast investments into public infrastructure to the introduction of carbon tax on aviation.

 While it is important to introduce dynamism to the discussion, we have to keep in mind to balance the sense of desperate urgency to avoid a systemic crisis.

For further reading, you might consider a policy contribution by the same author [Sustainable investing: How to do it](http://bruegel.org/2018/11/sustainable-investing-how-to-do-it/).

This podcast episode was recorded during the event [How to speed up sustainable finance?](http://bruegel.org/events/how-to-speed-up-sustainable-finance/) on the 28 of November