In order to support the achievement of the objectives of the European Green Deal, recognising the importance of the financial sector and aiming to combat greenwashing, the European Union introduced Regulation (EU) 2020/852 (the EU Taxonomy) in its 2018 Action Plan. This Regulation establishes the criteria for determining whether an economic activity can be considered environmentally sustainable.
According to the EU Taxonomy, an economic activity is sustainable if it:
- contributes substantially to one or more of the EU’s six environmental objectives;
- respects the “Do No Significant Harm” (DNSH) principle, meaning it does not significantly harm any of the other objectives;
- complies with minimum safeguard requirements, in line with the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
| EU Taxonomy Environmental Objectives |
|---|
| Climate change mitigation |
| Climate change adaptation |
| Pollution prevention and reduction |
| Transition to a circular economy |
| Sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources |
| Protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems |
Also for 2023, following the “by technology” approach used in the Directors’ Report of the Consolidated Financial Statements, we analysed the impact of the ERG Group’s businesses.
In addition to the two climate objectives, we examined the Supplementary Climate Delegated Act (Delegated Regulation 2023/2485) and the Environmental Delegated Act (Delegated Regulation 2023/2486), which define the requirements for the remaining four environmental objectives. The analysis confirmed that the activities carried out by the ERG Group are 100% aligned with the EU Taxonomy, consistent with the 2022 results.
Activity 4.1 (Electricity generation using solar photovoltaic technology) and Activity 4.3 (Electricity generation from wind power) make a substantial contribution to climate change mitigation.
The CapEx plan is also 100% aligned with the EU Taxonomy, as it focuses on the development of wind and solar businesses.
For KPI calculation, data by technology included in the Directors’ Report as of 31/12/2023 were used. In compliance with the European Commission FAQs, these figures were considered net of the fair value impact of hedging transactions (purely financial operations) and net of Corporate contribution, as Corporate does not directly participate in the production process. Aligned revenues, costs (defined as EBITDA minus revenues) and investments were therefore compared with the recalculated Group total.
Double counting was avoided by using consolidated data net of intercompany eliminations.