The “Global Guiding Principles for Developing Climate Finance Taxonomies – A Key Enabler for Transition Finance” is a follow-up to one of the recommendations in GFMA/BCG report from December 2020, Climate Finance Markets and the Real Economy, Sizing the Global Need and Defining Market Structure to Mobilize Capital. Similarly, the scope of this paper is limited to Climate Finance taxonomies and does not cover broader environmental, social, and governance (ESG) taxonomies.  Climate Finance taxonomies help enable financing, providing guidelines for investors and credit institutions on how “climate-aligned” a given corporate is at the entity level, or the alignment of specific activities undertaken by an entity to science-based pathways. Taxonomies should not be used as proxy for physical, transitional, or prudential risk assessment of financial institutions. A taxonomy captures only a snapshot of a corporate’s activities; therefore, to comprehensively understand a corporate through the lens of Climate Finance, a taxonomy should be used in conjunction with forward-looking decision-relevant metrics, enabled by mandatory disclosures.

The report identifies that all existing and new taxonomies should be assessed against five global principles:

1. Climate Finance taxonomies should be broadened beyond use of proceeds structures to capture entity-level activities and all eligible sources of capital.
2. Climate Finance taxonomies should be objective in nature, supported by clearly defined metrics and thresholds aligned to the Paris Agreement, and science-based targets.
3. Climate Finance taxonomies should have a consistent set of principles and definitions, but provide flexibility for regional and temporal variation to align with differences in transition pathways.
4. Climate Finance metrics should be defined and applied to sectors using science-based targets, balancing ease of use with transparency and robustness to both assess climate impact and support third-party verification.
5. Climate Finance taxonomies should be based on a governance process that is robust, inclusive, and transparent, and has the flexibility for continued evolution.

All existing and new taxonomies should be assessed against these global principles for Climate Finance taxonomies as well as the conclusions factored into shaping future enhancements and development of new taxonomies. The five principles are by design high level and not prescriptive for applications that are based on regional or nationally defined contributions, climate targets and policies, and sector-specific transition pathways. They are designed to be foundational in the development of Climate Finance taxonomies by ensuring key features underpinning each principle are considered (see checklists within the report).

– 16 June 2021 –