What is EU Taxonomy?
EU Taxonomy is a financing tool developed by the European Union to achieve European Green Deal objectives. In practice, EU Taxonomy is a tool to help investors, companies, issuers and project promoters navigate the transition to a low-carbon, resilient and resource-efficient economy. EU Taxonomy Regulation (EU) 2020/852, which entered into force on 12 July 2020, has direct implications for forest managers and owners who wish to label their assets “green.”
The Taxonomy establishes sector-specific technical screening criteria developed by the Technical Expert Group (TEG), which are used to verify the sustainability of investments.
General Requirements
To assess an investment’s degree of environmental sustainability and determine whether the investment’s underlying economic activity is environmentally sustainable, the action should meet the following requirements:
- contributes substantially to one or more of the environmental objectives;
- does not significantly harm any of the environmental objectives;
- is carried out in compliance with minimum safeguards; and
- complies with technical screening criteria that have been established by the Commission.
Implementation Timeline
Forestry Context
EU Taxonomy’s immediate implications for the forest sector are:
- Increased reporting requirements on carbon stocks
- Increased reporting requirements on sustainable forest management
- In the absence of a forestry certificate, demonstration of compliance with sustainable forest management (SFM) requirements.
- Investor identification of the proportions of different asset categories within a particular investment.
The investor will be required to identify the proportions of different asset categories within their investment.
Indufor’s Experience:
- Review of EU Taxonomy with a focus on technical screening criteria for a private client
- Review of EU Timber Regulation for the European Commission
- >100 due diligence projects on forest assets and downstream processing including environmental and social due diligence.
Link to the EU Taxonomy website.
Area Experts
Jarno Seppälä, Head of Forest Industry and Biosolutions Consulting, holds a master’s degree in forest products’ marketing (MSc For) from the University of Helsinki (2001). Mr. Seppälä completed his thesis at Oregon State University, Corvallis, USA, in 2000.
Jarno Seppälä has extensive international knowledge of the primary and secondary wood products as well as bioenergy industries in Europe, Russia and North America. He has been actively involved in and/or managed complete business plans and other strategy formulations, sector studies, raw material, supply chain and market analysis including detailed end-use segmentation and client identification. His responsibilities also include feasibility studies, investment analysis and evaluations as well as due diligence and M&A assessments. Mr. Seppälä has experience in both the private and public sectors – from small local operators to large multinational companies and organisations.
Mr Seppälä is fluent in Finnish and English.
Ms Anni Blåsten, Marketing Manager/Senior Consultant, holds a Master’s degree in forest products’ marketing (MSc For) from the University of Helsinki (1990) and Specialist Qualification in Management from the Institute of Marketing (2015).
Anni has 30 years of professional experience in the forest sector, wood products industry, EU forest-related policies, institutional development, as well as tendering and implementation of technical assistance projects. She is responsible for Indufor’s general marketing and the preparation of public sector tenders. She is a communications expert, producing material for Indufor's website, social media and Newsletters. She is fluent in Finnish, English and French.