The adoption of the Taxonomy Regulation is an important step towards incentivizing investments for economic activities that can be sustainable until 2050 and we congratulate the European Commission for the progress made in the context of the Taxonomy Regulation implementation so far: a lot has been done with FuelsEurope being engaged in the process from the very beginning by deeply analysing all its aspects and by offering collaboration with the EU institutions, Member States, and stakeholders, to help create the essential enabling policy framework in this field.
We would welcome that the EU technical screening criteria, constantly being revised an renovated, are being developed in a way that is mindful of the individual needs of different sectors as well as the specific characteristics of all Member States. The benchmarks should be developed in a way that broadens the basket of technological climate solutions, rather than narrows it. Particularly, low-carbon liquids have an important role to play as one such climate solution and more broadly in the energy transition of the EU economy.
The future Taxonomy should adopt a transitional, evidence-based and pragmatic approach, which reflects today’s technological development, available renewable and highly efficient low-carbon solutions significantly contributing to the transition, as well as current energy mixes and existing infrastructure.
When shaping the taxonomy’s technical screening criteria, the classifications should be based on the potential of investment projects, and not on generic classes of projects, so to avoid a-priori judging certain asset classes or entire sectors as “non-sustainable”. A holistic approach looking at all solutions that contribute to meeting the EU energy, environmental, climate and circular economy goals is required to ensure a neutral approach and a level-playing field.
The criteria in the regulation should be flexible enough to adapt to the market needs, to consider the different levels of possible contribution to the GHG reduction process and to take into account the scalability of a given technology, its potential multiple application, its applicability of learnings to other projects and cross-sectoral spill-overs.
The taxonomy should facilitate the availability of funds for sustainable research projects in a long-term perspective. Only a broad coalition of industry experts and financial institutions will be able to deliver workable solutions, creating a nurturing research environment, in view of the implementation of HorizonEurope.
We call on the European Commission to simplify and adjust the EU Taxonomy framework to better acknowledge companies’ investments into low carbon energy solutions and create a harmonized reporting framework to avoid diverging and misleading interpretations that could deter investors and slow down progress at a challenging time for energy security purpose.
12/11/2018