Supporting the European Commission in developing the EU Taxonomy for energy efficiency

The High Level Expert Group's recommendation in its final report "Financing a Sustainable European Economy and the Commission response in its Action Plan on Financing Sustainable Growth" set out a series of actions to be implemented in 2019, including the establishment of an EU classification system for sustainable activities, referred to as the EU Taxonomy. The Commission's proposal for a regulation on sustainable investments mandated a taxonomy framework, of which energy efficiency measures are an important activity contributing significantly to climate change mitigation by reducing the amount of energy consumed and the GHG emissions associated with that energy, along with other important co-benefits. 

The project supported the Energy Directorate of the European Commission and the technical expert group (TEG) in developing technical screening criteria for energy efficiency-related activities by providing structured input to the TEG, based on up-to-date literature, in-depth assessment of existing taxonomies currently used by the financial sector, and in-depth knowledge of the specific aspects and challenges related to energy efficiency as a cross-sector investment area. The project also supported the setting up of the Energy Efficiency Financial Institutions Group (EEFIG) on Taxonomy and Tagging, and assisted EEFIG in its reporting.