The launch of the Principles for Taxonomy Interoperability at the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP30) in November 2025, in Belém, Brazil, marked a significant moment in the evolution of global sustainable finance. Developed under the Taxonomy Roadmap Initiative (TRI), the principles respond to a growing recognition that while national taxonomies are essential for domestic policy alignment, their effectiveness increasingly depends on how well they connect across borders.
Read also: The wins and loses for Africa at COP30 from its conclusion
The principles are published by TRI partners, including the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), and the International Platform on Sustainable Finance(IPSF). They reflect a shift from fragmentation towards coordination.
Rather than prescribing a single global taxonomy, the principles promote coherence through shared design features, scientific foundations, and terminology, allowing jurisdictions to retain policy sovereignty while improving global comparability. This approach also aligns with Brazil’s vision as COP30 host for a worldwide “Super Taxonomy,” which emphasizes convergence and mutual recognition rather than uniformity.
At their core, the principles acknowledge that sustainable finance systems must be both locally grounded and globally comparable. They encourage countries to design taxonomies that respond to national development priorities, while anchoring them in common reference points that enable cross-border understanding, investor confidence, and regulatory cooperation. This marks a deliberate move away from isolated classification systems toward an interconnected global architecture for sustainable finance.
Sustainable finance taxonomies play a foundational role in defining which economic activities contribute meaningfully to environmental and social objectives. By setting science-based thresholds, performance criteria, and safeguards, they bring clarity to markets, support risk assessment, and enhance transparency across financial systems. Their growing use reflects an effort to reduce greenwashing while improving the credibility and usability of sustainable finance instruments.
According to a Taxonomy Roadmap Initiative Progress Report published in November 2025, more than 60 national and regional taxonomies are currently in use or under development globally, with Canada expected to launch its own taxonomy in 2026, further expanding this landscape. Early initiatives such as the Climate Bonds Initiative taxonomy, introduced in 2012, laid the groundwork by identifying climate-aligned activities for green bond markets. Since then, taxonomies have expanded in scope, sophistication, and policy relevance.
The European Union (EU) Taxonomy remains one of the most comprehensive models, extending beyond climate mitigation and adaptation to include pollution prevention, circular economy objectives, biodiversity protection, and sustainable use of water and marine resources. Its structured approach, combining technical screening criteria, environmental objectives, and minimum safeguards, has significantly influenced emerging taxonomies worldwide, including those in South Africa and Kenya.
Across Africa, countries are increasingly developing taxonomies that reflect regional development priorities while remaining interoperable with global frameworks. Kenya’s Green Finance Taxonomy (KGFT), issued by the Central Bank of Kenya in April 2025, exemplifies this balance. The framework aligns with international best practice while grounding sustainability definitions in national policy realities.
KGFT is built around three core principles: It requires economic activities to Make a Substantial Contribution (MSC principle) to at least one environmental objective out of the six mirrored from the EU Taxonomy, Do No Significant Harm (DNSH principle) to the other objectives, and comply with Minimum Social Safeguards (MSS principle), including local and international labor and human rights standards. These principles are operationalized through a Technical Screening Criteria (TSC) that defines performance thresholds and metrics, enabling consistent classification and application by financial institutions.
Kenya’s taxonomy was launched alongside the Climate Risk Disclosure Framework, reinforcing the link between classification, transparency, and risk management. Together, these instruments strengthen market confidence and improve the ability of financial institutions to assess climate-related risks and opportunities.
At the continental level, the African Development Bank (AfDB) is developing the African Sustainable Finance Taxonomy, a voluntary framework designed to harmonize definitions of sustainable economic activities while reflecting Africa’s development priorities and transition pathways. It complements global initiatives such as the G20 Sustainable Finance Roadmap and the Climate Bonds Resilience Taxonomy, positioning Africa to engage more effectively in global capital markets without neglecting local relevance.
As the number of national taxonomies expands, fragmentation has emerged as a key challenge. Divergent definitions, thresholds, and classification methodologies can increase transaction costs, complicate due diligence, and limit the scalability of cross-border investment, particularly in emerging and developing markets that rely heavily on international capital flows.
The Principles for Taxonomy Interoperability respond to this challenge by promoting alignment without imposing uniformity. They emphasize shared scientific foundations, comparable design elements, and consistent terminology, while encouraging countries to retain ownership over policy priorities and transition pathways. Interoperability, in this sense, enables taxonomies to “speak to each other,” allowing investors and policymakers to understand how different frameworks relate and where they diverge.
This represents a structural evolution in sustainable finance. By reducing information asymmetries and improving comparability, interoperable taxonomies lower barriers to cross-border investment and support more efficient capital allocation. For African economies, this creates opportunities to mobilize climate and development finance at scale while safeguarding national development objectives.
As countries such as South Africa proactively assess interoperability in their taxonomies, sustainable finance is increasingly evolving into a shared global infrastructure. This approach supports long-term investment, strengthens policy coherence, and advances credible climate action, preserving national climate transition priorities and broader development objectives.
Engage with us on LinkedIn: Africa Sustainability Matters
