Concerned about the direction of the EU’s future taxonomy, nine members of the Platform on Sustainable Finance warned the European Commission that they may “reconsider” their contribution to the platform in a letter sent to the institution on 31 March.
The European Commission’s Platform on Sustainable Finance aims to bring together public and private sector stakeholders to advise the Commission on the development of technical screening criteria for the EU taxonomy (see EUROPE 12572/27).
However, according to the five NGOs (BEUC, BirdLife Europe, ECOS, Transport & Environment and WWF) and four experts who signed the letter, this objective has been called into question since the disclosure in the press of a draft version of the delegated act establishing new criteria for integrating the taxonomy (see EUROPE 12684/3).
The nine signatories believe that the criteria for forestry, bioenergy, and fossil gases are “in clear contradiction to climate science” and fear that “politics and lobbying (...) will prevail over science”.
They added: “If the leaked text for these sectors were adopted, the taxonomy would become a greenwashing tool instead of being the gold standard in the fight against greenwashing that it was promised to be”.
They therefore urge the Commission to exclude fossil gas, forestry, and bioenergy from the delegated act, which is expected to be officially unveiled on 21 April.
For the latter two sectors, more time must be given to the discussion “in order to find adequate and credible climate criteria”, the signatories stress.
See the letter: https://bit.ly/3wuNFIH (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)