Processes4Planet at EC Workshop on EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy

Last 12 of November European Commission DG R&I in cooperation with European Partnerships has held a workshop on “EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy – an opportunity for sustainable industrial R&I”. Angels Orduna Cao, A.SPIRE Executive Director, has presented the point of view of Processes4Planet candidate Partnership. 

The workshop has been organized in view of the publication of the European Green Deal Communication, European Green Deal Investment Plan and the upcoming Renewed Sustainable Finance Strategy with its legislative package. 

The EU Taxonomy and the European Partnerships Workshop has been moderated by Jurgen Tiedje, Head of Unit Sustainable Industry Systems at DG R&I. It involved industrial stakeholders and potential Taxonomy users from the European Partnerships, policy-makers from the EC and investment specialists from the industry and the financial sector. The goal was to navigate Partnership perspective on EU Taxonomy and future investment opportunities, exchanging knowledge and visions on how to integrate Sustainable Finance into Partnership activities. A focus of the discussion was also on identifying barriers the Taxonomy needs to face to make investment viable. 

Orduna Cao intervention addressed all of these topics from Processes4Planet perspective. She acknowledged how the alignment of the Partnership R&I activities with the taxonomy will be extremely important to trigger the right investments that can be supported by the Sustainable Financing framework. 

The importance of the Taxonomy lies in supporting Processes4Planet sectors to scale up the innovations developed under Horizon Europe up to TRL9 through the First-Of-A-Kind plants or FOAK units within existing plants. This path will deliver the necessary support for process industries to contribute to the transition to the first climate neutral continent. A.SPIRE Executive Director clarified in conclusion that an Impact Panel - in which the taxonomy developments can play a crucial role - is in the plan of the upcoming governance model defined in the MoU.  

Huge investments are needed for process industries and with the right funding opportunities, Processes4Planet will aim at mainstreaming sustainability in an inclusive way.  

Learn more about the Taxonomy Regulation here.