On 18 June, the European Parliament adopted the Taxonomy Regulation – a key piece of legislation that will contribute to the European Green Deal by boosting private sector investment in green and sustainable projects.

The taxonomy will help create the world’s first-ever “green list” - a classification system for sustainable economic activities. This will create a common language that investors can use everywhere when investing in projects and economic activities that have a substantial positive impact on the climate and the environment. By enabling investors to re-orient investments towards more sustainable technologies and businesses, this piece of legislation will be instrumental for the EU to become climate neutral by 2050.

Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice-President responsible for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union said: “The adoption of the Taxonomy Regulation today marks a milestone in our green agenda. It creates the world’s first ever classification system of environmentally sustainable economic activities, which will give a real boost to sustainable investments.”

This endorsement by the European Parliament follows the adoption of the text by the Council on 10 June 2020. The endorsement by the European Parliament marks the final step of the adoption process of the political agreement that co-legislators had reached on 17 December 2019.

The Platform on Sustainable Finance

The Regulation also formally establishes the Platform on Sustainable Finance. This platform will be an advisory body composed of experts from the private and public sector. It will assist the Commission in the preparation of technical screening criteria (the so-called ‘delegated acts’), which will develop the taxonomy further. It will also advise the Commission on the further development of the EU Taxonomy to cover other sustainability objectives and provide advice on sustainable finance more broadly.