ℹ️ For a list of the mandatory PAIs, see our other article
The regulatory technical standards set out in the Delegated Regulation supplementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 set rules for reporting on the principal adverse impacts on sustainability factors considered during the investment decision-making process.
This mandatory framework was set with the intention to have financial market participants (FMPs) have access to comparable information which can inform their decision-making regarding their sustainable ambitions.
The Commission further published, annexed to this Delegated act, a template for reporting the Principal Adverse Impact statement (PAI Statement).
FMPs are thus required to disclose a filled-in version of the PAI statement if they have opted-in for the PAI framework as a Fund Manager (i.e., for all of its managed Funds). The statement must include the minimum set of 14 mandatory indicators, and:
i) information on one or more additional climate or other environmental indicator;
ii) information on one or more additional indicator for social and employee matters, respect of human rights, anti-corruption and anti-bribery matters; and
iii) information on any other indicator outside those lists that was used to assess additional principal adverse impacts on sustainability factors.
If you choose to opt-in only for a specific Fund you manage (i.e., on 'product-level'), you do not need to produce a PAI Statement for your Fund, but will need to disclose on your PAI results in your periodic disclosure.
This means that for your Fund, you still need to report on the mandatory set of indicators, and include at least one additional climate and one social voluntary indicator to monitor your portfolio companies.
ℹ️ You are allowed to choose as many more voluntary indicators than the minimum (i.e., one) as you deem relevant.
How can I choose the right additional indicators?
Step 1: Carefully go through Tables 1 and 2 below.
Step 2: Think about which indicators might be easiest to measure in more than one of your portfolio companies.
Step 3: Choose those indicators that you believe most of your portfolio companies have in common.
Additional Environmental Indicators
Indicator | Explanation/Question for Company |
Emissions of inorganic pollutants | Inorganic pollutants are mostly caused by inorganic chemical waste (water). |
Emissions of air pollutants | Air pollutants are direct sulphur dioxides emissions, direct nitrogen oxides emissions, direct non-methane volatile organic compounds emissions, direct particulate matter, direct ammonia and direct total heavy metals emissions. |
Emissions of ozone depletion substances | These substances are defined in the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. |
Investments in companies without carbon emission reduction initiatives | Do you have carbon emission reduction initiatives that are aimed at alignment with the Paris Agreement? |
Breakdown of energy consumption by type of non-renewable sources of energy | What non-renewable energy source do you use in your company? (Drop-down) Per source, indicate your energy consumption in GWh. |
Water usage and recycling | This refers to the average amount of water consumed and reclaimed by your company |
Investments in companies without water management policies | Do you have water management policies (guidelines for the collection, preparation, use, disposal and protection of water resources) in place? |
Exposure to areas of high water stress | Do you operate in areas of high water stress (these are regions where the percentage of total water withdrawn is high (40-80%) or extremely high (greater than 80%) in the World Resources Institute’s (WRI) Water Risk Atlas tool “Aqueduct”) and do not have adequate water management policies for those areas? |
Investments in companies producing chemicals | Do you manufacture pesticides and other agrochemical products? |
Land degradation, desertification, soil sealing | Do your company's operations lead to land degradation, desertification or soil sealing (the diminishing capacity of the soil to provide ecosystem goods and services as desired by its stakeholders)? |
Investments in companies without sustainable land/agriculture practices | Do you have sustainable land and agricultural practices in place? |
Investments in companies without sustainable oceans/seas practices | Do you have sustainable ocean and seas practices in place? |
Non-recycled waste ratio | A sum of all the waste that is recyclable |
Natural species and protected areas | Do your operations affect threatened species (listed in the European Red List or the IUCN Red List)? Do you have a biodiversity protection policy covering operational sites owned, leased, managed in, or adjacent to, a protected area or an area of high biodiversity value outside protected areas? |
Deforestation | Do you have a deforestation (the human-induced conversion of forested land to non-forested land) policy in place? |
2) Additional Social Indicators
Indicator & Metric | Explanation/Question for Company |
Investments in companies without workplace accident prevention policies | Do you have a workplace accident prevention policy in place? |
Rate of accidents |
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Number of days lost to injuries, accidents, fatalities or illness |
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Lack of a supplier code of conduct | Do you have a code of conduct against unsafe working conditions, precarious work, child labour and forced labour in place? |
Lack of grievance/complaints handling mechanism related to employee matters | Do you have a grievance/complaints handling mechanism related to employee matters in place? |
Insufficient whistleblower protection | Do you have a policy on the protection of whistleblowers in place? |
Incidents of discrimination | How many incidents of discrimination were reported and how many led to sanctions? |
Excessive CEO pay ratio | What is the average ratio of the annual total compensation for the highest compensated individual to the median annual total compensation for all employees (excluding the highest -compensated individual)? |
Lack of a human rights policy | Do you have a human rights policy in place? |
Lack of due diligence | Do you have due diligence processed to identify, prevent, mitigate and address adverse human rights impacts in place? |
Lack of processes and measures for preventing trafficking in human beings | Do you have prevention policies against human trafficking in place? |
Operations and suppliers at significant risk of incidents of child labour | Are your operations and suppliers at significant risk of incidents of child labour exposed to hazardous work in terms of geographic areas or type of operation? |
Operations and suppliers at significant risk of incidents of forced or compulsory labour | Are your operations and suppliers at significant risk of incidents of forced or compulsory labour in terms in terms of geographic areas and/or the type of operation? |
Number of identified cases of severe human rights issues and incidents |
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Lack of anti-corruption and anti-bribery policies | Do you have anti-corruption and anti-bribery policies (consistent with the United Nations Convention against Corruption) in place? |
Cases of insufficient action taken to address breaches of standards of anti-corruption and anti-bribery |
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Number of convictions and amount of fines for violation of anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws |
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