Economic activities added to the four environmental goals of the EU Taxonomy

In short, the EU Taxonomy describes which economic activities is deemed green by the EU, if all necessary criteria are fulfilled.

The six EU Taxonomy goals are:

• climate change mitigation (effective since 01.01.2022),
• climate change adaptation (effective since 01.01.2022),
• the sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources (expected Q3 2023),
• the transition to a circular economy (expected Q3 2023),
• pollution prevention and control (expected Q3 2023) and
• the protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems (expected Q3 2023)

In April 2023 the EU Commission published their drafts for the economic activities of the four environmental goals and added some activities to the first to climate goals of the EU Taxonomy. Until beginning of May 2023 the EU Commission consulted on these drafts with a planned final adoption of the delegated acts, which are then legally binding, in Q3 2023.

The lion share of the economic activities can be found in the circular economy goal, with 21 new activities. The EU Commission published 35 activities for the four environmental goals and added 13 to the climate goals, which totals 48 new economic activities for the EU Taxonomy.

The reporting requirements of the new EU-Taxonomy activities will start for 01.01.2024 to 31.12.2024 with eligibility reporting for financial and non-financial undertakings alike. Alignment reporting sees a split approach for non-financial undertakings starting with 01.01.2025 and for financial undertakings with 01.01.2026.

However, the latest updates to the EU Taxonomy of four environmental and two climate goals are still in draft status and might still be open to some changes, depending on the feedback in the consultation period.