CHAPTER I

This Regulation establishes the criteria for determining whether an economic activity qualifies as environmentally sustainable for the purposes of establishing the degree to which an investment is environmentally sustainable. This Regulation applies to: measures adopted by Member States or by the Union that set out requirements for financial market participants or issuers in respect of financial products or corporate bonds that are made available as environmentally sustainable; financial market participants that make available financial products; undertakings which are subject to the obligation to publish a non-financial statement or a consolidated non-financial statement pursuant to Article 19a or Article 29a of Directive 2013/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council Directive 2013/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on the annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements and related reports of certain types of undertakings, amending Directive 2006/43/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Council Directives 78/660/EEC and 83/349/EEC (OJ L 182, 29.6.2013, p. 19). , respectively. For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply: ‘environmentally sustainable investment’ means an investment in one or several economic activities that qualify as environmentally sustainable under this Regulation; ‘financial market participant’ means a financial market participant as defined in point (1) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 and includes a manufacturer of a pension product to which a Member State has decided to apply that Regulation in accordance with Article 16 of that Regulation; ‘financial product’ means a financial product as defined in point (12) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2019/2088; ‘issuer’ means an issuer as defined in point (h) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 of the European Parliament and of the Council Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 on the prospectus to be published when securities are offered to the public or admitted to trading on a regulated market, and repealing Directive 2003/71/EC (OJ L 168, 30.6.2017, p. 12). ; ‘climate change mitigation’ means the process of holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1,5 °C above pre-industrial levels, as laid down in the Paris Agreement; ‘climate change adaptation’ means the process of adjustment to actual and expected climate change and its impacts; ‘greenhouse gas’ means a greenhouse gas listed in Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 525/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council Regulation (EU) No 525/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 on a mechanism for monitoring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions and for reporting other information at national and Union level relevant to climate change and repealing Decision No 280/2004/EC (OJ L 165, 18.6.2013, p. 13). ; ‘waste hierarchy’ means the waste hierarchy as laid down in Article 4 of Directive 2008/98/EC; ‘circular economy’ means an economic system whereby the value of products, materials and other resources in the economy is maintained for as long as possible, enhancing their efficient use in production and consumption, thereby reducing the environmental impact of their use, minimising waste and the release of hazardous substances at all stages of their life cycle, including through the application of the waste hierarchy; ‘pollutant’ means a substance, vibration, heat, noise, light or other contaminant present in air, water or land which may be harmful to human health or the environment, which may result in damage to material property, or which may impair or interfere with amenities and other legitimate uses of the environment; ‘soil’ means the top layer of the Earth’s crust situated between the bedrock and the surface, which is composed of mineral particles, organic matter, water, air and living organisms; ‘pollution’ means: the direct or indirect introduction of pollutants into air, water or land as a result of human activity; in the context of the marine environment, pollution as defined in point 8 of Article 3 of Directive 2008/56/EC; in the context of the water environment, pollution as defined in point 33 of Article 2 of Directive 2000/60/EC; ‘ecosystem’ means a dynamic complex of plant, animal, and micro-organism communities and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit; ‘ecosystem services’ means the direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems to the economic, social, cultural and other benefits that people derive from those ecosystems; ‘biodiversity’ means the variability among living organisms arising from all sources including terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part and includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems; ‘good condition’ means, in relation to an ecosystem, that the ecosystem is in good physical, chemical and biological condition or of a good physical, chemical and biological quality with self-reproduction or self-restoration capability, in which species composition, ecosystem structure and ecological functions are not impaired; ‘energy efficiency’ means the more efficient use of energy at all the stages of the energy chain from production to final consumption; ‘marine waters’ means marine waters as defined in point 1 of Article 3 of Directive 2008/56/EC; ‘surface water’ means surface water as defined in point 1 of Article 2 of Directive 2000/60/EC; ‘groundwater’ means groundwater as defined in point 2 of Article 2 of Directive 2000/60/EC; ‘good environmental status’ means good environmental status as defined in point 5 of Article 3 of Directive 2008/56/EC; ‘good status’ means: for surface water, having both ‘good ecological status’ as defined in point 22 of Article 2 of Directive 2000/60/EC and ‘good surface water chemical status’ as defined in point 24 of Article 2 of that Directive; for groundwater, having both ‘good groundwater chemical status’ as defined in point 25 of Article 2 of Directive 2000/60/EC and ‘good quantitative status’ as defined in point 28 of Article 2 of that Directive; ‘good ecological potential’ means good ecological potential as defined in point 23 of Article 2 of Directive 2000/60/EC.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-10-27 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.