EU Taxonomy Regulation

The European Union’s Action Plan on Financing Sustainable Growth set out to establish a classification system for sustainable economic activities, formalized in the EU Taxonomy Regulation.

The methodology for the classification of economic activities follows Annex I of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/2139, as amended and expanded by Delegated Regulations (EU) 2023/2485 and (EU) C(2023)/3850, the complementary act on gas and nuclear activities (Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1214) and Annexes I-IV of the Environmental Act (Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2486, adapted and extended by Delegated Regulation (EU) C(2023)/3851), taking into account the simplification act (Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/73) supplementing the Taxonomy Regulation (EU) C(2020)/852 with the aid of the NACE codes cited.

The economic activities we have identified relate to the environmental objectives “Climate change mitigation” and “Pollution prevention.” We did not identify any activities under “Climate change adaptation,” “Water,” “Circular economy” or “Biodiversity.”

Since we identified only those eligible activities falling under the “Climate change mitigation” and “Pollution prevention” objectives, there is no duplication of taxonomy-eligible sales, CapEx or OpEx in other environmental objectives. In addition, because these KPIs relate to consolidated figures, there is also no duplication across various economic activities.

Economic activities identified as taxonomy-eligible under the “Climate change mitigation” objective included, in particular, those from the “Manufacture of plastics in primary form” (CCM 3.17) category. This category covers economic activities performed by the Silicones business division with silicone-based products such as silicone sealants and pyrogenic silica as insulation material, the Polymers business division with downstream products based on polyvinyl acetate, and the Biosolutions business division with the sale of PVAc-based gum base for chewing gum.

In addition to the economic activity mentioned above, we have identified the “Manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients” (PPC 1.1) as a taxonomy-eligible economic activity in relation to the “pollution prevention” environmental objective. This category covers activities in the Biosolutions and Silicones divisions, which manufacture active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) as end products. We have also identified production-related services that can be assigned to the following activities defined in the EU Taxonomy: “Construction, extension and operation of waste water collection and treatment” (CCM 5.3), “Electricity generation from hydropower” (CCM 4.5), “Electricity generation using solar photovoltaic technology” (CCM 4.1), “Construction, extension and operation of water collection, treatment and supply systems” (CCM 5.1), “Treatment of hazardous waste” (PPC 2.2) and “Remediation of contaminated sites and areas” (PPC 2.4). By analogy, we have also identified the only activity – “High-efficiency co-generation of heat/cool and power from fossil gaseous fuels” (CCM 4.30) – identified in accordance with Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1214 in relation to economic activities in certain energy sectors.

Within the meaning of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/73 in conjunction with the amended Article 1 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/2178, and in accordance with the new 10 percent materiality threshold and a cost-benefit analysis, all of these production-related services and the economic activity “Manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients” are classified as being immaterial, meaning that they are not reported as taxonomy-eligible.