News

10.06.2025 - Scaling transition finance products - SFDR review and beyond: Final Workshop at the Permanent Representation of the Federal Republic of Germany in Brussels

On June 10, 2025, we hosted our final project workshop focusing on transition finance, in particular, in the context of the ongoing SFDR review. The agenda combined research inputs from our project and a lively roundtable with representatives from EU institutions, label providers, civil society, academia, and finance.

We presented our technical framework for transition finance products, showing that clear minimum requirements, incorporating both a risk-return logic and climate impact, are feasible. Furthermore, we shared our findings on the heterogeneous preferences of retail investors and financial advisors for various SFDR categories, highlighting the value of differentiated product labels. Finally, we presented results from a large-scale experiment on retail demand for different E, S, and G dimensions. These inputs set the stage for an in-depth exchange with our advisory council and stakeholders.

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23.10.2024 - Team Meeting at the Ruhr University Bochum 

On October 23, 2024, the project team gathered at Ruhr University Bochum for a productive meeting to review progress and discuss upcoming goals. We are particularly grateful for the valuable input and open exchange with our advisory board members, Roland Kölsch, Martin G. Viehöver, and Jon Gallop, as well as the support and insights from Markus Baudisch and Oliver Dilly from DLR. The agenda covered a range of key areas, including internal project updates, collaborative discussions, and the presentation of two working papers, Financing the Economic Transition—On the Role of Labels for Retail Investors and Transition Products: Conceptual Clarity & Implementation Guidance. Feedback from the advisory board on these papers was invaluable, shedding light on the strengths and areas for further exploration. Martin G. Viehöver gave an insightful talk on the science-based targets pathway from positive impacts. We also presented our research on transition finance products, sparking an engaging discussion about the importance of different product categories in the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).

Additional Events 

• 2023/07: Science Meets Stakeholder Webinar: We presented interim results and received feedback from financial market participants.

• 2023/10: C-SEB - Early Ideas Workshop: We presented our research design for the paper "Financing the Economic Transition — On the Role of Labels for Retail investors."

• 2023/12: SFDR Consultation: Contribution to the SFDR consultation.

• 2024/08: Workshop Presentation: Presentation of the paper "Financing the Economic Transition — On the Role of Labels for Retail investors" at the DTU in Denmark.

• 2024/09: Workshop Presentation: Presentation of the paper "Financing the Economic Transition — On the Role of Labels for Retail investors" at the 9th Workshop on Experimental Economics for the Environment.

• 2025/02: Workshop Presentation: Presentation of the paper "Financing the Economic Transition — On the Role of Labels for Retail investors" at the AURÖ Workshop.

• 2025/02: Invited Talk: We presented our project results at the final workshop of the INTERACT project.

• 2025/03: Workshop Presentation: Presentation of the paper "The Demand and Avoidance of ESG Information" at the research seminar of the University of Gothenburg.

• 2025/06: Invited Talk: We presented our project results at the Green Finance Summer Academy hosted by the Kazakh-German University in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

• 2025/07: Final Conference SFCP: We participated and presented out final results at the final dialogue forum of the accompanying project Sustainable Finance and Climate Protection.

• 2025/07: Invited Talk: Presentation of the paper "Financial Advice, Gender, and Sustainability Preferences in Investment Decisions " at the Behavioral Economics and Management Science Colloquium in Hamburg.