Commission publishes new sustainable finance package (GEN – 1492.00)

20 June 2023

GEN – 1492.00. On 13 June 2023, the European Commission published a new sustainable finance package. It includes guidance on usability and interpretation of the Taxonomy, new Technical Screening Criteria, and a new proposed regulation on ESG rating activities.

Guidance on usability and interpretation

The first part of the package consists of a Commission Communication on a sustainable finance framework that works on the ground, accompanied by a Staff Working Document on enhancing the usability of the EU Taxonomy, and a Notice on the interpretation and implementation of certain legal provisions of the EU Taxonomy Regulation.

Regulation on transparency and integrity of ESG rating activities

In addition, the European Commission is proposing a new Regulation to improve the reliability and transparency of ESG ratings activities. The proposed Regulation outlines new organisational principles and clear rules on the prevention of conflicts of interest that are meant to increase the integrity of the operations of ESG rating providers. ESG rating providers offering services to investors and companies in the EU will be required to be authorised and supervised by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).

Taxonomy Environment Delegated Act

The European Commission has finally adopted the Environment Delegated Act with the Technical Screening Criteria (TSC) for the four remaining environmental objectives:

water and marine resources, Annex I,
circular economy, Annex II,
pollution, Annex III,
and biodiversity Annex IV.

The new Delegated Act notably contains circularity-related TSC for the following activities:

1.2. Manufacture of electrical and electronic equipment under NACE code headers C26 and C27
3.1. Construction of new buildings
3.2. Renovation of existing buildings
5.1. Repair, refurbishment and remanufacturing services
5.2. Sale of spare parts
5.3. Preparation for re-use of end-of-life products and product components
5.4. Sale of second-hand goods
5.5. Product-as-a-service and other circular use- and result-oriented service models

As a reminder, the first Delegated Act with the Technical Screening Criteria (TSC) for the first two environmental objectives (climate change adaptation and mitigation) were adopted in June 2021. This was complemented on 2 February 2022 with an additional Delegated Act with the TSC for natural gas and nuclear energy.

Amendments to Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act

In addition, the European Commission has adopted amendments to the first Delegated Act related to climate change adaptation (Annex I) and mitigation (Annex II). The amendments contain additional Technical Screening Criteria (TSC) for economic activities that did not yet have any in the first package, including in the manufacturing and transport sectors.

The amendments introduce no changes to article 3.5 on the manufacture of energy efficiency equipment for buildings.

Recommendation transition finance

Finally, the European Commission published a recommendation on transition finance, which aims to show how companies can use the various tools of the EU sustainable finance framework on a voluntary basis to channel the investments into the transition and manage their risks stemming from climate change and environmental degradation.

More information

The entire package can be accessed here.