PCE submission on Sustainable Finance Taxonomy

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has made a submission to the Centre for Sustainable Finance regarding its consultation on establishing a common taxonomy to guide sustainable finance.

In his submission he questions the proposal to rate almost all forestry activities as ‘green’ activities and points out the risks of this approach, namely:

• It is based on an assumption that forestry is a suitable permanent offset for emissions from long-lived greenhouse gas emissions.

• Without ensuring that forests are appropriately sited and managed, there is a risk to other environmental objectives including the sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources, and biodiversity and ecosystems.