EU Taxonomy

Sustainability and the transition to a climate-neutral, climate-resilient, more resource-efficient and more circular economy are key components of European policy to ensure the competitiveness of the European Union’s economy. Achieving the sustainability goals and generating sustainable growth requires the channeling of capital flows towards sustainable economic activities.

To determine the degree of environmental sustainability of companies and investments, it is necessary to have uniform legal requirements based on uniform criteria for environmentally sustainable economic activities. The EU taxonomy introduces a unified classification system at Union level to establish clarity on which activities qualify as “green” or “sustainable”. It helps investors to assess investment opportunities and also to compare them across borders. Moreover, it incentivizes investee companies to make their business models more environmentally sustainable. This also makes it easier for economic operators to raise funds for their environmentally sustainable activities.
(Source: EU Regulation 2019/2088)

The following six environmental objectives are defined in the EU taxonomy:

  • Climate change mitigation
  • Climate change adaptation
  • Sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources
  • Transition to a circular economy
  • Pollution prevention and control
  • Protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems


An economic activity is deemed to be taxonomy-aligned if it:

  1. is an eligible economic activity according to the EU taxonomy
  2. substantially contributes to one out of the six environmental objectives
  3. does no significant harm (DNSH) to any of the remaining five environmental objectives
  4. complies with minimum social and governance safeguards (Guiding Principles on Business, Human Rights, Rights at Work)

Fichtner’s experts support their clients in assessing taxonomy alignment and in designing and planning taxonomy-aligned projects.

Specific services:

  • Reviewing and assessing taxonomy alignment
  • Developing measures to achieve taxonomy alignment
  • Integrating the requirements of the EU taxonomy into the planning of projects
  • Analyzing and assessing climate risks and the resulting vulnerabilities of infrastructure and technical systems as well as developing project-specific adaptation measures to limit the impacts of climate risks on infrastructure and technical systems


Also read the blog post about the EU taxonomy on FICHTNER CONNECTED.