EU Taxonomy

outside of the vehicle) and stressful travel. Neither do these costs take account of the fines that will be applied to Ireland for not meeting its legally binding climate targets by 2030.

successful delivery of recommendations, ensuring a strong focus on Value for Money.

EU Taxonomy

This aim of this Strategy is to communicate the high-level direction, consisting of a set of guiding principles, that will define the type of the actions that implementing authorities may take out to 2030 and beyond. It aims to identify where potential barriers to implementation exist and sets out a work programme to remove them. As it is not prescriptive on the nature of measures to be taken by implementing bodies, the full cost of measures to be deployed is not yet know.

The EU Taxonomy for sustainable activities, established by EU Regulation 2020/852, is a classification system designed to guide investments towards environmentally sustainable economic activities. It aims to clarify what constitutes a sustainable activity and, in doing so, support the European Green Deal’s goals of carbon neutrality and a circular economy. The regulation, which came into force in July 2020, lays the groundwork for the taxonomy, while the European Commission is elaborating on it through delegated and implementing acts.

Value for Money

Any future funding associated with this Strategy will be contingent on compliance with the appropriate expenditure, legislative and value for money frameworks including the Public Financial Procedures, Regulatory Impact Analysis Requirements, and the Infrastructure Guidelines.

The European Commission’s website provides a useful tool, the Taxonomy Compass, which sets out Taxonomy conditions by sector including for transport36.

To comply with the Taxonomy, an economic activity must:

This Strategy sets out the pathway for future demand management measures. Agencies and LAs will finalise implementation plans for various Demand Management strategies in liaison with the relevant departments. These schemes will encompass the principles of this Strategy and will be developed alongside national guidance as per recommendations 4 and 5. Where programmes emerge, a cost-benefit model can be used to assess the viability of a range of proposals and the relative impact of potential options. Relevant departments will work with the Department of Public Expenditure Infrastructure, Public Sector Reform and Digitalisation in relation to ensuring appropriate project appraisal at all stages of the project lifecycle. It is not envisaged that the Strategy will give rise to any schemes or projects over the €200m threshold requiring Government approval. Nonetheless, all necessary procedures outlined in the project lifecycle contained in the Infrastructure Guidelines will be followed in progressing individual projects.

1. Make a substantial contribution to one or more of six environmental objectives and do no significant harm to all others. The environmental objectives are as follows:

a. Climate change mitigation

b. Climate change adaptation

c. Sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources

d. Transition to a circular economy

e. Pollution prevention and control

f. Protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems37

2. Meet technical screening criteria – contained in the delegated acts and relating to how to perform the above contributions in practice.

3. Meet minimum social safeguards, namely complying with human rights and labour standards.

As part of this Strategy, the Department will work closely with relevant stakeholders to develop an appropriate governance structure to provide the necessary oversight and management required for

Given that reporting on Taxonomy alignment will become increasingly widespread in the EU

36 https://ec.europa.eu/sustainable-finance-taxonomy/sectors/sector/6/view

37 In line with the EU Taxonomy for Sustainable Activities, the CSO are building Ecosystem Accounts that follow the United Nations System of Environmental Economic Accounting (UN SEEA) framework and ongoing work to develop a monetary valuation of the accounts which will connect with the System of National Accounts