On 8 September 2023, the Green Technical Advisory Group (GTAG) published the following two reports:

• Report on the treatment of green financial products under an evolving UK Green Taxonomy

The objective of this paper is twofold. Firstly, it provides the GTAG’s recommendations on how activities previously considered environmentally sustainable, i.e., ‘green’, are affected when the UK Green Taxonomy is implemented. Secondly, it covers how taxonomy-aligned activities, products and investments are treated as the taxonomy evolves over time.

The report makes certain recommendations including that the UK Government should provide clarity prior to the Taxonomy’s implementation on how existing green products will be treated when the Taxonomy comes into effect, and how taxonomy-aligned products will be treated as the Taxonomy evolves over time.  To support this, a ‘grandfathering’ clause is also recommended which provides a set time period for green debt issuers that will enable most green bonds and loans that are “green” or taxonomy-aligned at their time of issuance to remain aligned until maturity, and reduce lock-in risk for longer-term investments, if the criteria they are aligned to change.

• Report on operational considerations for taxonomy reporting: assessing and dealing with data gaps and the use of proxies

The objective of this paper is to provide the GTAG’s recommendations on how to ensure data gaps are minimised to support more robust and decision-useful taxonomy disclosures, without placing undue burden on businesses. In addition, the GTAG’s recommendations cover considerations on the use of proxies and estimates in taxonomy reporting.

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