News
European Commission adopts criteria for EU Climate Taxonomy
23. Apr 2021
On April 21, the EU Commission adopted a delegated act laying out assessment criteria regarding the contribution of certain economic activities to objectives of the European Green Deal. These environmental objectives are defined as part of the EU Taxonomy Regulation, a classification system for environmentally sustainable economic activities, which came into force in July 2020, as follows:
- Climate change mitigation
- Climate change adaptation
- The sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources
- The transition to a circular economy
- Pollution prevention and control
- The protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems
The delegated act adopted by the EU Commission refers to activities that contribute to the first two environmental objectives (climate change mitigation and adaptation). Annex 1 of the delegated act covers, among other things, criteria for (near-market) research and innovation actions on direct air capture of CO2.
Further such acts are envisaged on the other four environmental objectives as well as on activities not covered so far (such as agriculture, nuclear energy or natural gas), all of which are to apply from January 1, 2022 ( following the end of the respective scrutiny phase assigned to the Council and the European Parliament).
The EU Taxonomy Regulation (which entered into force in 2020) also provides the legal framework for the "do no significant harm" (DNSH) principle. This DNSH principle will also be partly relevant for the application and implementation of projects in Horizon Europe. For collaborative and EIC projects, it may be necessary to describe the extent to which selected research methods are in line with the DNSH principle. The EU Commission will provide further information on the DNSH principle in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide (not yet published) and is also planning an online seminar on the DNSH principle in Horizon Europe.
EU Taxonomy Regulation
EU Taxonomy Regulation Delegated Act (preliminary version)