Legal & Regulatory News

European Commission publish EU Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act

On 21 April 2021, the EU's College of Commissioners reached a political agreement on the text of a first delegated act for Regulation (EU) 2020/852 (the Taxonomy Regulation) on sustainable activities for climate change adaptation and mitigation objectives (the Climate Delegated Act).

The Climate Delegated Act introduces the first set of technical screening criteria to define which activities contribute substantially to two of the environmental objectives under the Taxonomy Regulation: climate change adaptation and climate change mitigation. The Climate Delegated Act covers the economic activities of roughly 40% of listed companies, in sectors which are responsible for almost 80% of direct greenhouse gas emissions in Europe. It includes sectors such as energy, forestry, manufacturing, transport and buildings.

The Climate Delegated Act will be formally adopted at the end of May once translations are available in all EU languages. A second delegated act for the remaining objectives will be published in 2022.

The publication of the Climate Delegated Act was accompanied by the adoption of a Commission Communication on ‘EU Taxonomy, corporate sustainability reporting, sustainability preferences and fiduciary duties: Directing finance towards the European Green Deal’ (the Commission Communication) which explained how the sustainable finance toolbox facilitates access to finance for the transition under the European Green Deal.

Click here to access the text of the Climate Delegated Act.

Click here to access the Commission Communication.