The effects of the EU Taxonomy on financing tasks of banks and companies in Austria

Abstract

Due to the increasing impact of climate change on the environment and, therefore, also on the economy, sustainability is now one of the main topics in politics and business. Due to these effects, the United Nations (UN) published its framework for developing a more sustainable world ‘Agenda 2030’ in 2015, which covers three core areas for a more sustainable world. Environmental, social, and governance ESG. These goals were surrounded by a political framework in 2016, which should gain strength with the motto ‘Towards a sustainable future’, as these three topics should be taken into account from the outset in every new measure and initiative of the UN. To demonstrate the European Union's commitment to the 2030 Agenda, the ‘European Green Deal’ was published in 2019.12 The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, adopted in Paris in 2016, aims to take more decisive action against climate change and manage this through financial flows. The aim is to create an environment with lower greenhouse gas emissions and greater climate resilience. The European Council adopted these conclusions on climate change on 12 December 2019. 3 This is the reason for creating the European Taxonomy Regulation and derived from this, the CSRD Directive to develop a framework to set targets to achieve a climate-neutral continent by 2050. A particular focus is placed on the safe transition to a climate-neutral and climate-resilient economy, which should make the economy competitive through a more resource-efficient and circular economy.4 With the help of a group of experts, developing an overarching and comprehensive union strategy for sustainable finance has begun. This defined what green, and sustainable activities are. These changes significantly impact companies and banks, which now have to categorise their activities to know whether they are green and sustainable.5 This thesis aims to show the interactions. How does this change financing landscape affect companies and banks? What key figures does a bank need to classify a company correctly, and can a company provide these critical figures at any time, or does a considerable additional effort have to be made to generate these key figures? The interviews and literature research revealed changes in the banks' rating conditions through soft facts. Still, no significant metrics could be identified here that would impact financing. Likewise, no new key figures could be determined that would influence. Still, it was found that companies and banks already have enormous amounts of data, which could lead to new evaluation methods and, thus, new ways of looking at things in the long term.

Date of Award	2024
Original language	English
Supervisor	Sarah Beatrice Kapplmüller (Supervisor)