*[Enwl-eng] EU Taxonomy Ten Points Statement released - Support if possible!

[ENWLine]

Dear all,

Thank you for supporting the Ten Points Statement on the EU Taxonomy. We managed to gather 94 signatures, a big improvement on our previous 55. The statement is still open for signatures, if you know of anyone who can help us reach 100!

The statement was published this morning on the WWF's website and was sent to key media contacts in Brussels. Please find the press release below and online here: https://www.wwf.eu/?uNewsID=363792

We are now trying to amplify the message as much as possible. If you can communicate on this statement with your local and national media, please do not hesitate to do so. Tweets are suggested below, or here's one to Re-Tweet.

We are available to help with any further questions.

Best wishes, and thank you for your support,

Henry

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SUGGESTED TWEETS (or RT HERE):

The EU’s plan to end greenwashing in the finance sector must not fall at first hurdle!

 

Nuclear & gas are NOT sustainable and should not be included in taxonomy.

 

94 NGOs agree - RT if you do too! #stopfakegreen

 

https://www.wwf.eu/?uNewsID=363792

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Hydropower, bioenergy & forestry can easily do more harm than good to climate & nature

 

94 NGOs say @EU_Commission must tighten rules on what counts as sustainable

 

Follow the science to #stopfakegreen in EU taxonomy!

 

https://www.wwf.eu/?uNewsID=363792

The taxonomy can guide the EU’s green recovery spending

For immediate release

NGOs set out demands for EU sustainable taxonomy Brussels, Belgium - 25 May 2020

Nearly 100 NGOs have signed a list of ten priorities for an effective and science-based EU taxonomy. If done properly, the taxonomy should help end greenwashing in the finance sector by showing which investments are truly sustainable. The taxonomy can also play an even bigger role, helping the post-crisis EU economy become more resilient by guiding the EU’s green recovery spending. The 94 NGOs, which include WWF, 350.org, Transport & Environment and Climate Action Network Europe, ask for criteria suggested by the technical expert advisory group to the Commission (the TEG) to be tightened particularly for forestry, bioenergy and hydropower, where there is a risk of damaging practises being included as sustainable. For example on bioenergy, they ask for the European Commission to exclude tree trunks and stumps from being considered as ‘green’, since burning them for energy actually increases emissions compared to fossil fuels. Sébastien Godinot, Economist at WWF European Policy Office said: “If the Commission gets the taxonomy right, the EU will have a ready-to-use map for green recovery, clearly showing where to invest for a more resilient and sustainable economy. But allowing the taxonomy to be too lax, or including the wrong sectors like nuclear or gas as sustainable, would undermine it from the get-go. We urge the Commission to take our ten asks into account.” The ten demands and full list of signatories are here. Contact: Sarah Azau Media Manager, WWF European Policy Office +32 473 57 31 37 sa...@wwf.eu

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HENRY EVISTON | Sustainable Finance Policy Officer | 

WWF European Policy Office | 

123 rue du Commerce,1000 Brussels, Belgium | 

EU Transparency Register Nr: 1414929419-24 | 

Mobile: +44 770 602 5686 | 

www.wwf.eu  

 

From: Henry Eviston

Sent: Monday, May 25, 2020 5:25 PM

Subject: EU Taxonomy Ten Points Statement released - Support if possible!

 

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[ENWL]

Dear all,

With my apologies for cross-posting, please allow me to raise your attention on an important  EC consultation on corporate sustainability reporting, available here:

https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/12129-Revision-of-Non-Financial-Reporting-Directive/public-consultation 

Deadline: 11 June (next Thursday, midnight). It would be great if your NGO can answer this consultation: the Commission is reviewing the Non-financial reporting directive (NFRD) and we need to make it right (it currently works very poorly). Corporate sustainability reporting will be a big battle: conservative businesses are unwilling to make efforts, but without the right sustainability information published, corporates and financial institutions remain blind on sustainability issues and can't factor them in, so business as usual goes on. It is worth fighting for because we are not alone: central banks, financial regulators and investors, banks and insurers want more and more corporate sustainability information so this should split some businesses, helping us to push our views.

You will find attached WWF responses to the questionnaire, that you can use for your own response if you wish. As usual for EC consultations please do NOT copy-paste our text and use your own wording.

You will also find below the 8 key issues we are recommending for this review (there may be more to add, as corporate reporting is a broad issue).

Let's note that corporate sustainability reporting is a critical enabler of a more sustainable economy. However we are very clear this is only a means to and end: it is high time the EU becomes serious on corporate sustainability governance too, and for that purpose, with other groups we are asking separately for two new EU legislations on (1) mandatory corporate environmental and human rights due diligence ('do no harm' side) and (2) directors duties (notably asking for mandatory corporate sustainability strategy and targets and more - 'do good' side partly).

Please ask Sebastien in CC or me if you have any questions. Thanks a lot.

Best,

Henry

Eight key issues to push in the NFRD reform on corporate sustainability reporting:

1.     Develop mandatory sector-specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – as few and as strategic as possible – to ensure comparability between comparable companies or business models. To complement these few mandatory indicators, a second layer of recommended (voluntary) indicators could be developed.

2.     NFRD scope for large companies:  The NFRD should apply to all large undertakings regardless if they are listed or not and with a definition of large undertakings aligned with the one in the Accounting Directive (above 250 not 500 employees).

3.     NFRD scope for SMEs: The NFRD should apply to medium-sized enterprises (from 50 to 249 employees) in ‘high risk’ sectors that bear higher sustainability risk or impacts, to be defined in a delegated act using NACE codes at the relevant level of granularity.

4. The development of an EU corporate reporting standard as committed by Commission’s Vice-President Dombrovskis (building on existing reporting frameworks) means that a regulation will be more relevant than a directive, focusing on ‘sustainability’ not on ‘non-financial’ reporting which is partly misleading.
5. Disclosure of corporate forward-looking information is critical in the concrete form of measurable time-bound sustainability targets and strategies, capex plans, and degree of alignment with the Paris Agreement of companies’ business models (using climate scenario analysis).
6. A central EU data repository should collect corporate sustainability data in an open data format that is machine-usable, in order to enable access and analysis of information by all relevant stakeholders.
7. Full consistency of disclosure obligations should be ensured between the NFRD, the Taxonomy regulation and the Disclosure regulation to maximize effectiveness.
8. The material sustainability information should be published in the mainstream financial report. This is already what most companies do today.