Publication Type
Report
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
1-2022
Abstract
Both South Africa and the European Union have introduced a common language and a clear definition of what is ‘sustainable’ through a taxonomy, a classification of environmentally sustainable economic activities, at the core of their sustainable finance ecosystem. Sustainable finance taxonomies provide transparency on what can be considered green and, hence, help investors, public authorities and policy makers make informed decisions, avoid green washing, and scale up sustainable investment. The purpose of the present report is to provide a comparison between the EU Taxonomy Regulation1 , including the respective EU Climate Delegated Act 2 and South Africa’s Green Finance Taxonomy3 as of September 2022. The report seeks to outline the similarities and differences between the two taxonomies to bring clarity and transparency to EU and international investors about investments that could be considered green by both the EU and South Africa. This will help reduce transaction and research costs for international and EU investors and hence facilitate cross-border flows between the EU to South Africa for a green and sustainable transition. The review contains a side-by-side comparison of the key taxonomy elements, i.e. the high-level principles of both taxonomies, their development process and their governance mechanisms. Moreover, it covers an in-depth comparison of the technical screening criteria for each economic activity for the climate change mitigation and adaptation objectives, incl. the substantial contribution (SC), the do-no-significant-harm (DNSH) and Minimum Safeguard criteria (MS).
Discipline
Environmental Law | Finance and Financial Management
Research Areas
Integrative Research Areas
First Page
1
Last Page
165
Citation
COJOIANU, Theodor Florian; HOEPNER, Andreas G. F.; and VU, Anh.
A comparison between the EU green taxonomy and South Africa’s green taxonomy. (2022). 1-165.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cis_research/387
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://www.treasury.gov.za/comm_media/press/2022/2022111101%20Report_A%20Com parison%20Between%20the%20EU%20Green%20Taxonomy%20and%20South%20Africa%E2 %80%99s%20Green%20Taxonomy.pdf