Accounting for the EU Green Taxonomy: exploring its concept, data and analytics

The European Union's Green Taxonomy has been used by corporations to account for and disclose hundreds of billions of Euros in capital expenditures. The aim of the taxonomy is to set a common and clear definition about which economic activities are most needed for the transition to a low-carbon economy, in line with the objectives of the European Green Deal. It is essential that academic research explores (a) to what extent the taxonomy is clearly understood, (b) if it impacts financial, environmental and societal outcomes, and (c) how it can be advanced. We review the nascent literature on this new phenomenon, emphasize data challenges such as financial conflicts of interest, and explore new analytics for studying the green taxonomy. Specifically, we (i) classify green capex, green opex, green revenue and green asset ratio according to time horizon and direction of financial transaction, (ii) propose green operating profit before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization as difference between green revenue and green opex and (iii) the ratio of green capex to green revenue as measure of a corporation's speed of climate transition.