This morning the book presentation conference “Business future under EU Green Taxonomy”, published by the European Liberal Forum in collaboration with the Luigi Einaudi Foundation, took place in Rome. Andrea Sbandati, expert in environmental economics, Sarka Shoup, director of the Institute for Politics and Society, Marco Enrico Ricotti, full professor of nuclear plants at Politecnico di Milano, Sofia Santos, sustainability economist at Systemic, Ryan Jacobsen, administrative officer, and Gianni Bessi, Regional Councilor for Emilia Romagna, presenting her contributions to the book, discussed the need for basic regulation on sustainable finance and low-carbon activities. I introduced the debate by Andrea Pruiti Ciarello, director of the Einaudi Foundation.
“In the midst of a geopolitical crisis that requires the derussification of fossil fuels, it is really disappointing that the taxonomy recognizes the green label for material recovery plants, but ignores the energy contribution of waste-to-energy plants. By 2035, waste incineration plants with energy recovery will be able to produce 189 TWh of energy per year, equivalent in terms of primary energy to 19.4 billion cubic meters of natural gas. More than 10% of the volume of imported Russian gas from Europal 2020”, explained Andrea Sbandati.
For Prof. Marco Ricotti “new nuclear technologies, those of small modular and fourth generation reactors, are emerging as part of the response to the challenges of global warming and energy independence. Are we ready, he asks, to seriously consider this option?
Gianni Bessi, commenting on the vote of the Environment and Economy Committees of the European Parliament that opposed the inclusion of nuclear energy and gas in the list of sustainable economic activities from the environmental point of view, underlined: “It is precisely the taxonomy that provides a framework for private investment. If there is no framework of rules, private individuals will continue to finance investments in gas and nuclear technologies, but they will have much more freedom. In reality, voting does not favor deregulation.”
“The taxonomy has established reporting obligations to identify commercial activities aligned with the decarbonization path by 2050,” said Sofía Santos, however, she added, “it is limited to large companies, despite the fact that more than 90% of the European companies are SMEs”.
“In 2021, the ESG-managed investment portfolio grew by 53% to a total of $2.7 trillion according to Morningstar source. More than 450 parameters coexist to define a sustainable investment. A jungle that confuses everyone: investors, managers and issuers. The recent scandal of the Deutsche Bank-controlled asset management company DWS, accused of greenwashing its 2020 financial statements complete with a police record, sounded an alarm bell,” concluded Patrizia Feletig, journalist and moderator of the meeting. , who later added: “Therefore, we welcome the shared and evidence-based standards of the EU taxonomy to replace the different classifications developed independently by countries, companies and industries to measure the degree of ecological compatibility of an investment.” Dr. Feletig is the leader of the Business Future project under the publication EU Green Taxonomy together with Avv. Gian Marco Bovenzi.
