The European Commissioner for Financial Services, Mairead McGuinness, confirmed to MEPs in the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON), on Monday 25 January, that the Commission needed more time to finalise its delegated regulation establishing the taxonomy for climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation (see EUROPE 12453/25). The text was originally intended to be published by 1 January 2021.
The Commission received more than 46,000 responses to the public consultation it launched on the draft text in November (see EUROPE 12606/15). “Given the big interest in the public consultation, we need to delay the delegated act so all responses are duly considered”, she explained, without however announcing a new date for the publication of the text.
Both at the time of the negotiation of the legislative text and during the drafting of this first delegated act, the EU taxonomy was the subject of intense lobbying (see EUROPE 12546/12).
Some 98% of responses are from EU citizens urging the Commission to uphold the ambition of the delegated act, Ms McGuinness said, but some businesses expressed concern that the criteria sometimes went beyond what is required in existing EU legislation.
“The Taxonomy goes further in some cases than existing legislation and policy because it is necessary to do so (...) The status quo is the reason why we have a climate problem. Continuing on our current path will not do”, she said.
The Commission is nevertheless considering “recalibrating” the technical screening criteria when serious concerns are raised, but “we do not want to break the link with science or the alignment with Green Deal targets”, she promised. The Commission has asked the Platform on Sustainable Finance to provide further input on how the Taxonomy could help businesses with the transition.
The year 2021 promises to be a busy one for sustainable finance, the commissioner said. In particular, the following are expected: - a renewed strategy on sustainable finance (see EUROPE 12464/29); - the revision of the directive on the publication of extra-financial information (see EUROPE 12618/20); - a European standard for green bonds (see EUROPE 12505/31); - as well as the creation of a single access point for investors to financial information and those linked to the businesses’ sustainable development. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)