EU Taxonomy

Sustainability - European Union - European Commission.

The EU Taxonomy is a tool to help investors, companies, issuers and project promoters navigate the transition to a low-carbon, resilient and resource-efficient economy.

The Taxonomy sets performance thresholds (referred to as ‘technical screening criteria’) for economic activities which:

• Make a substantive contribution to one of six environmental objectives (below).
• Do no significant harm (DNSH) to the other five, where relevant.
• Meet minimum safeguards (for example, the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights).

Environmental objectives of the EU Taxonomy:

• Climate change mitigation.
• Climate change adaptation.
• Sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources.
• Transition to a circular economy.
• Pollution prevention and control.
• Protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems.

Under the EU Taxonomy, three different types of activity are recognised as "environmentally sustainable":

(1) Activities that make a substantial direct contribution to one or more of the environmental objectives noted above.

(2) Transitional activities, acting as an appropriate stepping stone.

(3) Appropriate enabling activities.

See also

• Accounting for Sustainability (A4S)
• Biodiversity
• Business & Sustainable Development Commission
• Carbon footprint
• Climate change adaptation
• Climate change mitigation
• Common Ground Taxonomy
• Conference of the Parties
• Convention on Biological Diversity
• Corporate social responsibility
• Circular economy
• Credit
• Credit rating agency
• Draft Delegated Act
• Enabling activities
• ESG investment
• ESG transition
• European Commission
• European Union
• Global Sustainable Investment Alliance
• HLEG
• Metaeconomics
• Natural capital
• Organic
• Social taxonomy
• SRA
• SRI
• Stakeholder
• Substantial Contribution (SC)
• Sustainable Development Goals
• Sustainable finance
• Sustainability
• Sustainability Accounting Standards Board
• Sustainability bond
• Sustainability-Linked Loan Principles (SLLP)
• Taxonomy alignment disclosures
• Taxonomy Regulation
• Technical Expert Group
• Technical Screening Criteria (TSC)
• Transitional activities
• UK Green Taxonomy
• UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association
• United Nations
• World Trade Organization