(Bloomberg) -- The second and final day of the Bloomberg Sustainable Business Summit, which is underway, is focused on topics ranging from Europe’s green recovery to building a diverse workforce to discussions about the “S” in ESG.

Speakers include Mairead McGuinness of the European Commission and executives from Unilever Plc, LinkedIn Corp., HP Inc., Hershey Co., Cisco Systems Inc., ViacomCBS Inc. and Ben & Jerry’s.

The Sustainable Business Summit is being organized by Bloomberg Live, a division of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News. More information about the event can be found online and on the Bloomberg Terminal.

Banks and Investors Should Make Sure Financial System Is Green, McGuinness Says (8:20 a.m. NY time)

As the European Union unveiled Wednesday the most ambitious multilateral climate strategy ever attempted, its message to the finance sector: Play your part.

That means banks and investors should make sure the financial system “looks green and finances green,” and it also may have to turn away some investments, said Mairead McGuinness, commissioner for financial services, financial stability and the capital markets at the European Commission.

“If you believe that climate change is real and, you know time is short, you can’t say ‘yes, I want to change but just not now; don’t ask me, ask a friend,’” said McGuinness. “All of us have to change.”

Investors should put funds in what’s considered green today, support the energy transition and turn away investments that aren’t considered sustainable, she said.

“There’s also a responsibility on investors to look in a sustainable way to the long term and maybe to turn away from what they know they’re investing in today, which could be damaging the climate and the environment because we’re really concerned about environmental degradation,” McGuinness said.

The vast EU Green Deal, which is designed to cut pollution by at least 55% by 2030 from 1990 levels, will touch every corner of the bloc’s economy, transforming the way people heat their home to the cars they drive. The Fit for 55 package would expand the world’s largest carbon market to include shipping companies, eliminate new combustion-engine cars, and slap a levy on imports of steel, cement and aluminum.

And while Wednesday’s announcement was focused more on the real economy than the financial sector, the ramifications of the emissions reductions goal are significant for banks and investors and follow a swathe of new rules that were proposed earlier this month to bring the world of finance in line with its carbon neutrality target.

Read more: EU Targets Finance for $415-Billion-a-Year Green Transition

And climate change isn’t the only topic on McGuinness’s mind. Covid-19 laid bare a raft of social issues that investors had previously paid little attention to: the “S” in ESG.

As such, the EU is working on a kind of social taxonomy like it has done for green investments. That should likely include a “forensic look” at supply chains, how businesses treat their employees and issues of diversity and inclusion. More details about this work should be available at the end of the year, she said.

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