The ‘Platform on Sustainable Finance’, which brings together stakeholders to advise the European Commission on taxonomy, has asked for the institution’s agreement to review the governance and transparency of decision-making on the EU’s Taxonomy criteria, its Chairperson, Nathan Fabian, announced in a statement posted on Twitter on 21 April.
In his view, such a review is necessary to “ensure that the role of evidence and technical input is protected and respected”.
On the same day, five NGOs (ECOS, WWF, Transport & Environment, BirdLife, and BEUC) announced that they were suspending their activities in the ‘Platform on Sustainable Finance’ set up by the European Commission, in reaction to the presentation of the first delegated act on EU taxonomy.
These organisations criticised, in particular, the criteria for bioenergy and forestry (see EUROPE 12703/2, 12701/16).
In their view, these criteria “are not based on science” and “ignore” the recommendations provided by the Platform (see EUROPE 12682/21) in accepting that industrial logging and bioenergy from burning trees and crops are considered sustainable investments.
Criticism was also expressed by other civil society organisations such as Greenpeace and the think tank E3G, as well as by the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament.
“The Commission has given in to the lobbies of the forestry industry”, said French MEP Marie Toussaint. Like Greenpeace, she also expressed concerns about the possible inclusion of natural gas and nuclear in the Taxonomy through a subsequent delegated act.
Putting their contribution to the Platform on hold, the five NGOs are now calling for discussions with the Commission to establish rules that “stop the scientific basis of the EU Taxonomy law being compromised further”.
It should be noted that BEUC, BirdLife and Greenpeace have already called on the European Parliament and the Council of the EU to reject the Commission’s proposed delegated act.
Other reactions
Unsurprisingly, Bioenergy Europe, an organisation representing the European bioenergy sector, welcomed the delegated act.
“It is just natural for bioenergy to be screened as a sustainable investment given it offers an alternative to fossil fuels and is actually the only energy sector complying with mandatory sustainability criteria”, said its secretary general, Jean-Marc Jossart.
Lastly, Foratom, the organisation representing the European nuclear industry, said it was pleased to see that the Commission is “willing to recognise that its taxonomy needs to be based on the science if it is to be credible and successful”. It also called on the institution to publish the future delegated act covering nuclear power “as quickly as possible” to “ensure that taxonomy does not lead to market distortions”.
See Nathan Fabian’s statement: https://bit.ly/2Qh61wC (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)