Taxonomy now final

17 Dec 2021
Piotr Biernacki
Sustainability Managing Partner
Two delegated acts supplementing Regulation 2020/852 have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union, so we know the final content of the Taxonomy and how companies are to report it in their upcoming annual reports.

The first of these acts (Delegated Regulation 2021/2139) contains the relevant so-called Taxonomy, or Technical Eligibility Criteria. This is a set of different types of economic activities, and for each of them there are specific criteria that must be met in order for the activity to be considered to make a significant contribution to combating or adapting to climate change and not to significantly harm other environmental goals.

The second act (Delegated Regulation 2021/2178) contains detailed formulas according to which companies will report what percentage of their turnover, capital expenditures (CapEx) and operating expenditures (OpEx) comply with the Taxonomy. The regulation also specifies how to count turnover, CapEx and OpEx, and what additional information must be included in the report beyond the completed tables.

In the first year, i.e. in the 2021 reports published in the first months of 2022, companies will report on Taxonomy issues in a simplified manner. Starting the following year, not only will it be necessary to report fully on compliance with the Technical Qualification Criteria, but also with respect to the other four environmental goals. The criteria for these goals - protection of water and marine resources, development of a closed-loop economy, prevention of pollution, and protection of biodiversity and ecosystems - are known today in draft form, and will take the form of further annexes to a delegated act in the first months of 2022.

Taxonomy reporting is a new and complicated responsibility. It usually takes companies several weeks to several months to prepare solidly for it. In the coming days, the European Commission will publish an FAQ with answers to a number of questions about this obligation. MATERIALITY experts participated in identifying the most common and difficult problems facing companies preparing for reporting in recent months, and a corresponding set of questions has been submitted to the EC. Soon everyone will know the answers to them. And if you want answers to your questions about the Taxonomy today, or need support in preparing for reporting, please feel free to contact us.

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