The EU Environmental Taxonomy, introduced by the 2020 Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council, is a kind of dictionary defining sustainability for the purposes of assessing and financing activities commonly referred to as green. It establishes 6 environmental goals defined as:
- climate change mitigation;
- climate change adaptation;
- Sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources;
- The transition to a closed-loop economy;
- Pollution prevention and control;
- Protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems.
Whether an activity complies with the Taxonomy is to be assessed on the basis of technical criteria published by the EC in special delegated acts. Currently, documents have been issued for the first two environmental goals – on climate change. The conditions outlined specify the industries for which specific requirements must be met. Activities related to 9 sectors can be compatible with the Taxonomy:
- forestry;
- Environmental protection and restoration activities;
- industrial processing;
- Energy;
- Water supply, wastewater and waste management, and remediation;
- transportation;
- Construction and real estate activities;
- information and communication;
- professional, scientific and technical activities.
Agriculture is missing from the list of sectors. According to the approach taken, no agricultural activity can therefore be classified as sustainable. The effects can include restrictions on access to financing. On the one hand, the NRO reports that agriculture accounts for 8% of national greenhouse gas emissions. On the other hand, the role of farming in shaping biodiversity, water retention or climate change adaptation is very large. The strategy for agriculture is an integral part of the European Green Deal, so work is underway to include it in the technical criteria for environmental purposes. According to the European Commission, the reason for the sector’s omission from the documents released in 2020 was the lack of a final version of the Common Agricultural Policy.
However, the CAP has already been adopted and there is nothing to prevent the completion of the Taxonomy. What’s more, the Sustainability Platform has already produced a report with recommendations, so the inclusion of the agricultural sector in the EU Taxonomy can be expected soon.
In future issues of “Water Issues”, we will cover the subject of the Taxonomy and compliance assessments more extensively.