EU Sustainability Taxonomy for Non-financial Undertakings: Summary Reporting Criteria and Extension to SMEs

Abstract

The European Taxonomy defines in a technically robust way the system of sustainability objectives at the level of the European Union and the technical criteria for verifying which economic activities contribute to achieve the system of objectives. Compared to the current practices on sustainability, the EU Taxonomy introduces new and articulated principles for assessing the environmental sustainability of undertakings and new operational challenges, which are complex to implement. Indeed, the contents of the Taxonomy have a strong impact and therefore require in-depth analysis on many fronts.

The paper aims to contribute to shed light on the above issues, focusing on non-financial undertakings and pursuing 3 main objectives. The first objective of the paper is to disseminate the main contents of the Taxonomy. The second objective is to introduce general criteria to satisfy in order to represent the articulated contents required by the Taxonomy in an exhaustive and easy-to-consult summary reporting. The third objective concerns some preliminary reflections on possible ways of extending the Taxonomy to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which play a very significant role in the European economic system.

Keywords: EU sustainability taxonomy, environmental sustainability, sustainability plan, sustainable investment, ESG risk, climate change risk, transition risk, ESG sustainability report

JEL Classification: D81, K32, O21, Q50, Q51, Q56