Response to the inception impact assessment: “Commission Delegated Regulation on a climate change mitigation and adaptation taxonomy”

FuelsEurope (representing the EU refining sector) and IOGP (the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers) welcome the EU’s efforts to establish a sustainable finance framework that unlocks private investments in projects and technologies to reduce the impact on the environment, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and support the transition of the industry to a sustainable future.

The refining sector supports the goals of the Paris Agreement and supports the Green Deal’s ambition for climate neutrality in 2050 and will work with the EU institutions, Member States, and stakeholders, to help create the essential enabling policy framework.

The more the EU can steer investments towards the least-cost pathway to net-zero emissions, the further and faster it is likely to drive decarbonisation across Europe, maximising the EU’s contribution to the delivery of the Paris climate goals. For this reason, we call for alignment between the taxonomy and its thresholds with the least-cost pathway to climate neutrality recognising all technologies available to reduce emissions.

We congratulate the European Commission and the Technical Expert Group (TEG) on the progress made so far in establishing a taxonomy for sustainable investments, and we welcome the opportunity to provide our input at this stage. We would also like to express our interest in participating in the Platform on sustainable finance to contribute to the development of the future delegated acts.