1) Created in 2021 to give the UK Government advice regarding taxonomy-related topics, Green Technical Advisory Group (GTAG) urges that the UK Green Taxonomy does not diverge from the EU Taxonomy mainly because it has “fewer costs and more benefits”.
Even though the UK onshored most of the EU Taxonomy to create the UK Taxonomy, the Technical Screening Criteria (TSC) hasn’t been included since it was introduced after Brexit. The GTAG suggested that the parts of the TSC that are aligned with the UK net-zero strategy should be adopted and implemented.
Source: UK Taxonomy should not diverge from EU
2) After the EU added nuclear energy and natural gas on the list of “green investments”, Austria filed a lawsuit as Leonore Gewessler, Austria’s Federal Minister for Climate Protection, believes it is “irresponsible and unreasonable”.
Austria, that was recently joined by Luxembourg, is currently hoping that other members of the European Union will support its standpoint and join the rally.
Source: Austria launches legal challenge over EU’s ‘greenwashing’ of nuclear and gas
3) The Competition Bureau Canada is currently looking into RBC as it has been discovered that RBC was deceiving Canadian citizens about their climate performance. One part of the investigation is that RBC was supposed to contribute $500 billion towards sustainable financing by 2025 and has been investing instead billions of dollars in fossil fuels which is fueling the climate crisis. With the amount invested by RBC, the bank has become the 5th largest financier in the world for fossil fuels. If found guilty, the bank will face a $10 million fine.
Source: RBC under investigation by Competition Bureau over alleged greenwashing
4) EFRAG is going to be signing an agreement with TNFD and has informally discussed with ESRS E4 to align with the TNFD framework, but there isn’t an official agreement yet for the ESRS E4. Philippe Diaz, a member of EFRAG, suggested changes to the ESRS E4 that would help align it more closely with EFRAG’s strategy and the TNFD framework.
The TNFD is going to be releasing some papers in December , but until then nothing official can be aligned until the papers become public.
Source: EFRAG to sign cooperation agreement with TNFD
5) US legislators are pressuring the federal regulator to tighten down on the carbon offsets market and establish new regulations to oversee it. Democratic Party Senators like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand requested from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to prepare plans which would offset the carbon emissions.
There have been previous schemes that were established to offset emissions, but were not really beneficial according to the senators. The CFTC is currently working on raising these standards and creating a scheme that can make a difference.
Source: US senators push for regulatory action on the carbon offset market
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