{"id":19995,"date":"2026-02-18T10:04:39","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T10:04:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.horizonandbeyond.org\/?p=19995"},"modified":"2026-02-18T10:14:55","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T10:14:55","slug":"understanding-sustainable-fund-categories-what-articles-8-and-9-really-mean-sfdr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horizonandbeyond.org\/en\/understanding-sustainable-fund-categories-what-articles-8-and-9-really-mean-sfdr","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Sustainable Fund Categories: What Articles 8 and 9 Really Mean (SFDR)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Photo: Pexels \/ Red Zeppelin<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Introduction<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The mentions \u201cArticle 8\u201d and \u201cArticle 9\u201d now appear everywhere in financial documents.<br>One might think they indicate whether a fund is \u201csustainable\u201d or not. In reality, their role is different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To understand them properly, let\u2019s start with the basics:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/eur-lex.europa.eu\/legal-content\/EN\/TXT\/?uri=CELEX:32019R2088\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SFDR <\/a>= Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u27a1\ufe0f European regulation on sustainability-related disclosures in the financial sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Its purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is <strong>not<\/strong> meant to say whether a fund is sustainable.<br>Its purpose is to require financial actors to explain <strong>how<\/strong> they take sustainability issues into account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u27a1\ufe0f In short: <strong>enhancing transparency<\/strong>, not evaluating sustainability performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>1. Why do we talk so much about Articles 8 and 9?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Because the SFDR requires funds to explain what they do and to place themselves in a category.<br>Articles 8 and 9 have therefore become reference points \u2014 sometimes used as implicit labels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But they are <strong>not<\/strong> labels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>2. What Articles 8 and 9 do <em>not<\/em> mean<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>It is often assumed that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Article 8 = \u201cslightly sustainable\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Article 9 = \u201cvery sustainable\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This interpretation seems simple \u2014 but it is incorrect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The SFDR does <strong>not<\/strong> measure:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>the real impact of an investment,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>the quality of an ESG strategy,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>or the robustness of the indicators used.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>It only requires transparency about what is being promised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>3. Article 8: a very broad category<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>An Article 8 fund must \u201cpromote\u201d environmental or social characteristics.<br>But this promotion can take very different forms:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>sector exclusions,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>ESG filtering,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>best\u2011in\u2011class selection,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>or a few minimal criteria.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Without reading the strategy in detail, the category alone does not reveal what is actually being done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>4. Article 9: a declared ambition, not always the same<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Article 9 funds must set a sustainable investment objective.<br>However, the way this objective is defined and measured varies widely from one institution to another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a result:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>two Article 9 funds may pursue very different approaches,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>and show levels of ambition that have little in common.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>5. What the SFDR fundamentally changes<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The SFDR does <strong>not<\/strong> classify funds: it makes their intentions and methods <strong>visible<\/strong>.<br>It forces clarification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It requires information that was not always accessible before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But to interpret this information, one needs to understand:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>which indicators are used,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>which criteria truly matter,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>and what methodology lies behind the chosen category.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Without these reference points, misunderstandings are easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>6. Why this understanding is becoming essential<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>With the emergence of the EU Taxonomy and the CSRD, a common language for sustainable finance is gradually taking shape.<br>And like any language, knowing the words is not enough \u2014 one must understand their meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>To go further (in two hours)<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>\ud83d\udc49 Enroll in <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.horizonandbeyond.org\/en\/mooc\/learning-essentials-sustainable-finance\">Horizon &amp; Beyond\u2019s \u201cEssentials of Sustainable Finance\u201d MOOC<\/a><\/strong> to truly master the foundations of the regulatory framework.<br>A short, educational and jargon\u2011free format \u2014 designed to provide the right insights without overwhelming information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo: Pexels \/ Red Zeppelin Introduction The mentions \u201cArticle 8\u201d and \u201cArticle 9\u201d now appear everywhere in financial documents.One might think they indicate whether a fund is \u201csustainable\u201d or not. In reality, their role is different. To understand them properly, let\u2019s start with the basics: SFDR = Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation \u27a1\ufe0f European regulation on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":19992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horizonandbeyond.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horizonandbeyond.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horizonandbeyond.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horizonandbeyond.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horizonandbeyond.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19995"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.horizonandbeyond.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20002,"href":"https:\/\/www.horizonandbeyond.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19995\/revisions\/20002"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horizonandbeyond.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horizonandbeyond.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horizonandbeyond.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horizonandbeyond.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}