Development of the EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy - A framework for defining substantial contribution for environmental objectives 3-6

The European Union has introduced a new policy tool to define which investments can be considered environmentally sustainable: a taxonomy of environmentally sustainable economic activities (“the EU Taxonomy”). Regulation (EU) 2020/852 of the European Parliament and the Council (the ‘Taxonomy Regulation’), establishes the framework for its development and use. It empowers the European Commission to define the actual taxonomy, i.e. the list of economic activities and associated technical screening criteria setting out the required level of environmental performance. This list of economic activities and the accompanying technical screening criteria will be adopted in delegated acts. This report is an input to the work of developing technical screening criteria for activities substantially contributing to four remaining environmental objectives defined in the Taxonomy Regulation. It proposes a methodological framework and a step-by-step process to draft criteria for economic activities substantially contributing to an objective: from the identification of the type of substantial contribution the economic activity can make, the selection of the most suitable approach to draft the technical screening criteria and the setting of the level of ambition expected to consider that contribution substantial. The report then explores how the conceptual framework can be applied in practice for each of the four environmental objectives considered.