[ad_1]
LONDON (Reuters) – The European Commission may recalibrate its planned “taxonomy” or guide for people looking to invest in climate-friendly assets after a huge public response, its chief financial officer said on Monday.
Mairead McGuinness said the EU executive received 46,000 responses to a public consultation on his model to flesh out a taxonomy law due to come into force in 2022.
It establishes a system for classifying activities that can and many cannot be considered climate sustainable to facilitate the transition to a low carbon economy.
“It would be helpful to take a step back and look at what taxonomy is and what it is not,” McGuinness told the European Parliament.
“This is not a mandatory list of activities in which investors must invest,” she added.
The first batch of measures to implement the taxonomy must be delayed as it goes beyond some existing EU laws and policies, she said.
She said 98% of responses to the public consultation came from citizens asking the European Commission not to break the alignment of the taxonomy with the EU’s Green Deal goals to reduce carbon emissions.
“The Commission will consider recalibrating the technical selection criteria when serious concerns are raised, but we don’t want to sever the link with science or alignment with the Green Deal goals,” McGuinness said.
The Commission has asked the Sustainable Finance Platform to provide additional information on how the taxonomy could help businesses in their transition to reduced carbon emissions, she said.
Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by David Gregorio and Angus MacSwan
Source link
