What is the Czech Republic’s view on the ongoing debate on sustainable finance, also known as taxonomy? Are we not abandoning the ambition to reduce emissions by 55 percent by 2030? And what, in your opinion, will the debate be focused on?
The original purpose of the regulation on Sustainable Finance, known as Taxonomy, was to create such voluntary frame of reference for private investors within the financial sector which would clearly define economic activities in accordance with their sustainability. This would ensure that everyone would define sustainable activity in the same way. EU funding today requires more and more often that the economic activity is aligned with the criteria of economic sustainability.
The Czech Republic is of the opinion that the thresholds proposed by the European Commission are disproportionately strict. This might create a substantive disadvantage for some technologies which we believe would be able to help reach our decarbonisation targets. We are convinced that hydroelectric power, low-carbon hydrogen production or gas-fi red power plants have a huge potential. Regarding hydrogen, the European Commission itself realizes that at least in the short-term, in order to start the hydrogen economy, hydrogen will have to be produced not only from renewable sources of energy, but also from low-carbon ones. In some cases, as a replacement of solid fossil fuels, natural gas can serve as the fastest and most cost-effi cient way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Nonetheless, such production is excluded from sustainable activities for the time being.
The Czech Republic is far from being the only Member State that realizes these risks. It would be false to say that only Member States from Central and Eastern Europe voiced their strong criticism. There is a concern that the proposed draft will not take us to our 2030 climatic goals and that the whole process would take much longer, respectively.
The so called delegated act, which is being discussed, was to be issued by the end of 2020. The Commission, nevertheless, is currently recasting it. They have received more than 46,000 comments in the public consultation and many comments from the Member States during the expert consultations. We are now assuming that the revised act should be published in mid-April this year.
The representatives of the Czech Republic, together with our colleagues from like-minded Member States, are now communicating in an informal way with the European Commission and explaining what our priorities and reservations are. In recent weeks, we were assured that our specific comments are understood and that they are being taken into account. The final version of the criteria should thus be more realistic.
text: Edita Hrdá, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the European Union
foto: archiv Stálého zastoupení ČR při Evropské unii
