ISS ESG, the responsible investment arm of Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), has announced enhancements to its EU Taxonomy Alignment Solution. In June 2023, the European Commission approved EU Taxonomy criteria for economic activities making a substantial contribution to one or more of the remaining four (of the six) Taxonomy objectives, namely – sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources; transition to a circular economy; pollution prevention and control; and protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems. The ISS ESG EU Taxonomy Alignment solution has been expanded to include the recently introduced new technical screening criteria for 45 activities related to the remaining four objectives as well as the amended criteria for 26 existing activities related to the existing two objectives (climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation). The enhanced solution provides 456 new dedicated factors to cover the remaining four objectives, data from which will flow directly into existing top entity level factors. The data can be obtained via multiple delivery channels, per clients’ needs. Till Jung, Managing Director, Head at ISS ESG said: “Investors currently face a significant discrepancy between the availability of data reported by investee companies and the granularity of data required to fulfil their own EU Taxonomy reporting obligations. Modelled data can be used to bridge both this gap and the gaps created by the staggered implementation of EU Taxonomy requirements.”
