Six hundred companies invested €191 billion (US$208 billion) in activities aligned with the EU’s green taxonomy last year, according to the European Commission. In 2024 so far, companies have made €249 billion in taxonomy-aligned investments, meaning around 20% of EU-based companies’ capital investments are now aligned with the blueprint, which details which economic activities investors and companies can consider as sustainable. Germany reported the highest taxonomy-aligned investments between 2022-23 at €114 billion, followed by France (€63 billion), Spain (€60 billion) and Italy (€48 billion). More than 60% of electricity providers’ investments are taxonomy-aligned, the commission added. Separately, the EU Platform on Sustainable Finance (PSF) is working on improving the usability of the bloc’s sustainable finance framework. This includes recent efforts to develop a simplified, proportional and more user-friendly approach for non-listed small- and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) to improve the accessibility of sustainable finance for smaller companies, to better facilitate their transition to a low-carbon economy, and to plug data gaps. “This voluntary tool will focus on key metrics aligned with the taxonomy’s substantial contribution criteria for eligible activities and a few metrics within the [European sustainability reporting standards] non-eligible activities,” said Helena Viñes Fiestas, Chair of the PSF. “The approach is designed to be easy, simple, and practical to enhance user-friendliness.”
