The EU taxonomy aims at creating security for investors, protect them from greenwashing, help companies to become more climate-friendly, mitigate market fragmentation, and help shift investments where they are most needed. ESIA strongly supports the EU taxonomy framework, and the European semiconductor industry is able and willing to lead and provide the needed technological solutions to combat climate change, while simultaneously decarbonise its own activities (see for example activities on PFC gases). In this fight, semiconductor products, together with other solutions will have a key role to play in achieving carbon neutrality. In light of this, it is essential that the EU Taxonomy recognises the enabling role of the semiconductor industry for climate change mitigation.
The goal of ESIA’s dedicated Working Group on Taxonomy is to develop a high-level understanding of the EU taxonomy and how it affects the semiconductor manufacturing industry. To that end, the group is working on creating a guidance document outlining under which circumstances semiconductor manufacturing companies are eligible and/or aligned within the meaning of the EU Taxonomy Regulation.
The EU Taxonomy Regulation establishes four basic conditions that economic activities must meet in order to be regarded as environmentally sustainable:
- the economic activity must contribute substantially to one or more of the objectives set out in the Taxonomy Regulation;
- it may not significantly harm any of the other objectives;
- it must be carried out according to the Taxonomy Regulation’s minimum safeguards; and
- it must comply with the technical screening criteria that are laid down by the European Commission through Delegated Acts.
With the Climate Delegated Act, the Commission laid down technical screening criteria for determining under which conditions an economy activity qualifies as contributing substantially to climate change mitigation and for determining whether that economic activity causes no significant harm to any of the other environmental objectives. ESIA believes that semiconductor manufacturing may fall within category 3.6 ‘Manufacture of other low carbon technologies’, since semiconductor products have the potential to contribute to substantial greenhouse gas emission reductions in sectors that are not mentioned in categories 3.1 to 3.5 and are covered by NACE code 26[1].
Chair
Jean-Louis Champseix - STMicroelectronics
April 2023: ESIA Guidance on the EU Taxonomy Framework
[1] Statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community. 26 - Manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products. https://nacev2.com/en/activity/manufacture-of-computer-electronic-and-optical-products