The role of AMF (French Market Authority) in Taxonomy Reporting: an invaluable field guide to environmentally sustainable economic activities

Abstract

The 2023 AMF Taxonomy Report was published on 20 November 2023 and provides an unprecedented, highly technical overview with a valuable educational dimension. The 2024 AMF Taxonomy reporting of financial institutions is also very interesting. It provides valuable information about the “taxonomy reporting” introduced by Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852, known as the “Taxonomy Regulation,” which is already part of the vast body of information on sustainability that companies will be required to disclose according to a specific timetable based on certain criteria. It shows that the Taxonomy Regulation is the cornerstone of the sustainable finance regulation developed by the EU as part of a complex web of legislation.1 The links between sustainable finance and nonfinancial reporting in general are increasingly tenuous, as this taxonomy reporting is also carried out at the interface between existing but evolving legislation (such as the SFRD regulation), which is due to come into force for the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) in 2024. The content of this reporting, along with the pursuit of evolving environmental objectives (EOs), the do no significant harm (DNSH) principle, and the classification of economic activities themselves (low-carbon, in transition, adapted, enabling, etc.), play an essential role in investors’ choices. This is the first report by the French financial market regulator Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) on the alignment of activities with the taxonomy. It is therefore an invaluable aid to understanding the process and, above all, to embarking on the subsequent stages, as it presents a genuine operating procedure for analyzing, classifying, and narrating economic activities in order to demonstrate their degree of environmental sustainability. The AMF, which has just celebrated its twentieth anniversary, has demonstrated that, together with the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), it is making a substantial contribution to helping companies implement the sustainable finance strategy that is integral to the European Green Deal.