The taxonomy excludes positive abatement of 800 million tons CO2

The EU Commission's proposed delegated act for Sustainable Finance Taxonomy has caused strong reactions from numerous Swedish industries, including the forest-based industry.

The Swedish forest industries is presently very engaged to assure the proposed delegated act is revised before adoption. This is mainly because the act excludes existing sustainable forest management.

“The delegated act would, if adopted as suggested, reduce the Swedish forest industry’s possibility of borrowing by using green bonds. According to evaluations done by Swedish banks, no green bonds based on forests will be possible, if existing sustainable forest management is excluded.” says Henrik Sjölund, President and CEO of Holmen and Chairman of the Swedish Forest Industries Federation.

The Commission has chosen to disregard the recommendations from the Technical Expert Group (TEG). This is of great concern to Viveka Beckeman, Director General at the Swedish Forest Industries:

“The significant climate benefits of existing sustainable forest management were already recognized by the TEG in its advice to the Commission. These recommendations were developed with substantial scientific and technical input. And their report relied on the Sustainable Forest Management principles as defined by Forest Europe.”

And the biggest loser in this is the climate, Henrik Sjölund makes clear:

“The Commission’s delegated act would exclude existing sustainable forest management from the Taxonomy – which is equivalent to neglecting a positive CO2 abatement from European forests and forest-based products of more than 800 million tons per annum. This runs counter of the Taxonomy’s purpose and could significantly hinder European Green Deal objectives.”