On the 2nd of June, we submitted our feedback to the European Commission’s draft delegated regulation on sustainable finance, concerning obligations for certain companies to publish non-financial information.
The delegated act specifies the disclosure obligations under the Taxonomy Regulation, which provides that certain large undertakings should disclose information on how and to what extent their activities are associated with the technical screening criteria of the Taxonomy.
EFIEES has actively been engaged in the process which has led to the establishment of the EU Taxonomy, welcoming, in particular, the improvements progressively introduced into the classification of activities contributing to climate change mitigation.
We have also welcomed the ambition to increase transparency by creating a Taxonomy that aims at enhancing sustainability-related disclosure by financial and non-financial undertakings.
In this respect, we believe that effective non-financial reporting could be achieved, provided that certain conditions as regards usability, coherence, and proportionality are met and properly clarified in the delegated act.
The feedback’s key messages include that:
- Sustainable classified activities should be deemed as such throughout the economic lifetime of the corresponding assets.
- Reporting should include Taxonomy-aligned activities in companies’ portfolios if considered sustainable in the past but yet not meeting today’s criteria for Taxonomy eligibility.
- The right balance should be kept between transparency and complexity/cost.