This is an HTML version of an attachment to the Freedom of Information request 'Taxonomy Jan-May 2021'.



Ref. Ares(2021)6116633 - 07/10/2021
FISMA/11007 - Invitation to speak - ZEP Advisory Council
meeting
Meeting date and place
Meeting held on 16/12/2020 10:50
Participating organisation(s) representative(s)
ETIP ZEP Requester
Main issues discussed
(ZEP) gives the floor to 
, DG FISMA, for an update on the Taxonomy delegated acts.
Firstly, she mentions that the Strategy on Sustainable Finance has been postponed to 2021. After a recap on the 
timeline for the Taxonomy consultation and a brief
update on the delegated acts,
 highlights that the work on finalising the delegated acts is ongoing and that the list of 
eligible economic activities will be updated over the years. Changes and adjustments will be made over time – the 
objective of the Taxonomy is not to be prescriptive but to give a reliable indication of sustainable economic activities. 
She informs that the timeline for adoption of the delegated acts has changed and is likely to delay,due to the high 
volume of feedback received by the Commission.
opens the floor
for questions.
 asks how the different mitigation thresholds in different delegated acts should be interpreted? 
: There will be 
thresholds in all the delegated acts – one to
highlight if an activity makes a substantial contribution and is therefore a golden standard in one specific sector; the 
others, ‘Do no significant harm’
are the safeguards to ensure the coherence across environmental objectives. While the level of ambition for DNSH 
generally corresponds to those in other EU legislations, there are
cases where they can and have to go beyond existing law. Where other legislation refers to the DNSH criteria in 
particular, including for funding opportunities, the taxonomy criteria are usually offered as one possible alternative 
among others.
 asks why CCU is excluded and why the capture of CO2 anthropogenic emissions (CO2 capture)
excluded is? 
: DAC and CO2 capture were mentioned in TEG report. However, DAC is not commercially available at 
large-scale and is now listed as R&D
activity; CO2 capture is not a self-standing activity but associated with specific industrial sectors and is included directly 
in the respective activities.
CCU not included for lack of evidence for now, although some applications of CCU for manufacturing of low-carbon 
products might be interesting. She invites AP
to make this clear in the feedback to the consultation.
asks why there is no indication of declining thresholds? 
: A direct emissions threshold based on average EU 
emission data has been chosen as the

preferred methodology. The Commission believes that the thresholds should indeed be tightened in the future, as also 
outlined in the Taxonomy Regulation, and
will amend the delegated acts periodically. However, fixing trajectories with potentially marginal differences too much in 
advance might also affect usability and risks to miss out on making the right adjustments later based on new 
technologies and policies, which is why the current approach removes the declining threshold for now.
 concludes the discussion stating that all technologies should be subject to an LCA and that the Taxonomy must 
remain technology neutral and science-based and pursue the
objective of net-zero by 2050. ZEP will respond to the consultation.
Directorate or unit
FISMA.B.2
Internal participants
FISMA B/2
Notetaker
Author(s) of minutes
Validator and validation date