#EUCircularTalks: The Taxonomy and Sustainable Finance – What does it mean for the Buildings & Infrastructure sector?

What does “sustainable” mean? With the EU Taxonomy, a common classification system for sustainable economic activity was put in place to find a common language and clear definition of sustainability.

Still, stakeholders and market participants perceive a lack of awareness and clarity regarding the Taxonomy. Awareness of Taxonomy requirements is still quite low among market participants and stakeholders. Nonetheless, they wish to gain a deeper understanding of the Taxonomy, since it is perceived as quite challenging.

For example, regarding the Circular Economy Taxonomy criteria, stakeholders have emphasised the lack of specifications, definitions and a general sense of unclarity over aspects in all the criteria. Many SMEs are keen on better understanding the concrete impact which the Taxonomy has for the Buildings & Infrastructure sector.

Furthermore, since demonstrating compliance requires collecting data and information, data accessibility is an important factor which is still lacking. Gaps with regards to DNSH (do no significant harm) data are especially prevalent. These gaps in knowledge, data and also tools hinder the application of the Taxonomy.

About the EU Circular Talks

The EU Circular Talks is an exchange concept of the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform. It aims to encourage stakeholders to interact and discuss the circular economy topics in the platform.

Stakeholders initiate the topics themselves. These can take multiple forms of online events; workshops, seminars, debates or Q&As. These are followed by discussions directly via the platform’s communication channels. The #EUCircularTalks uses all the communication channels to inform the community and foster the debate on the circular economy. The results of each EU Circular Talk is summarised and published on the ECESP platform.

Programme outline

• Welcome and context
  

  • Christine Lemaitre, DGNB
  • EESC member

• Panel discussion
  What is taxonomy? What is its purpose? How to tackle gaps (information, tools, data)
  

  • Josefina Lindblom, DG Environment, European Commission
  • Stephen Richardson, World GBC

• Panel discussion
  What does taxonomy mean for the building and infrastructure sector?
  

  • Fernando Sigchos Jiménez, EBC
  • Alexandra Quint, Assiduus

• Conclusion and the way forward

  • Christine Lemaitre, DGNB