General Court concludes that burning wooden biomass and manufacturing virgin plastic feedstock are sustainable activities

17/09/25

The General Court of the European Union handed down judgment this week in Case T-579/22 ClientEarth v Commission, one of the first cases about the application and meaning of the EU’s Taxonomy Regulation (2020/852/EU).

The Taxonomy Regulation empowers the European Commission to make delegated legislation by which it defines “sustainable activities” that meet the standard laid down in the Taxonomy Regulation. The purpose of defining sustainable activities is to attract investment to support those activities, consistent with the EU’s overarching environmental ambitions.

In 2021 the Commission concluded that existing the EU law standards concerning combustion of wooden biomass, and the manufacture of virgin plastic feedstocks were sufficient to meet the test of sustainability, subject to certain limited additional requirements. ClientEarth sought the annulment of the delegated legislation.

The judgment provides important guidance about the wording of the Taxonomy Regulation. It addresses the meaning of the term “conclusive scientific evidence” (a lower threshold than the words might suggest), and the requirement to establish that an activity “does no significant harm.” It also clarifies the extent to which the Commission is required to incorporate criteria that govern the full life cycle of the products in question including their downstream uses (this is optional if it is difficult to model for those activities).

The judgment was handed down on the same day as the judgment in a separate case brought by Austria concerning the taxonomy in relation to nuclear power (Case T-652/22). The two judgments should be read together in order to understand the General Court’s overall approach and conclusions. There are a considerable number of other taxonomy challenges that have already been filed in relation to other delegated acts made by the Commission. This first round of judgments will not be the final word on this contentious topic.