Taxonomy Aligned Investment Screening

Taxonomy aligned investment screening evaluates projects against recognized sustainability taxonomies to support environmental credibility and financing eligibility. This may include, among others, screening projects against the ASEAN Taxonomy criteria, alignment with the European Union (EU) or national green taxonomies where relevant, verification of climate mitigation or adaptation benefits, exclusion of environmentally harmful activities, and documentation for investors and regulators.

For DMC ports, taxonomy aligned screening can help prevent greenwashing, verify that funding supports genuinely sustainable activities, facilitate access to green finance markets, improve project comparability and transparency, and align infrastructure development with climate goals.

A sustainable finance taxonomy is a classification system that defines which economic activities may be considered environmentally sustainable based on technical screening criteria. Taxonomies typically classify activities against environmental objectives, such as climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, protection of healthy ecosystems and biodiversity, and resource resilience and the transition to a circular economy. Activities that meet thresholds for substantial contribution to an objective, while not causing significant harm to other objectives, may be classified as Green (or eligible equivalent).

The ASEAN Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance Version 4, released by the ASEAN Taxonomy Board in 2025, provides regional technical screening criteria for activities spanning sectors including Transportation and Storage; Construction and Real Estate; Electricity, Gas, Steam and Air Conditioning Supply; and Water Supply, Sewerage, Waste Management and Remediation (ASEAN Taxonomy Board, 2025). The ASEAN Taxonomy is designed to be interoperable with the EU Taxonomy and national taxonomies in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and other ASEAN member states, while reflecting regional development priorities.

Application of a taxonomy involves, among others, screening proposed investments against the activity level criteria (such as ASEAN Taxonomy v4 Activity 5 50[001] Infrastructure for water transportation, including infrastructure to enable low carbon water transport under the Transportation and Storage sector), verification that the activity meets the Tier 1 (Green) technical screening criteria for the target environmental objective, demonstration that the activity does no significant harm (DNSH) to other environmental objectives, and documentation of compliance with the Social Aspects criteria.

For port investments, relevant ASEAN Taxonomy activities include, among others,

• 50[001] Infrastructure for water transportation, including infrastructure to enable low carbon water transport,
• 68[004] Renewable Technologies
• 410[002] Renovation of existing buildings
• 68[002] Energy efficient equipment, and
• 39[001] Remediation of contaminated sites and areas

The applicable objectives, tiers and criteria for each activity, and the codes and titles listed here, require confirmation against the full Version 4 annex (ASEAN Taxonomy Board, 2025).

The Port of Rotterdam Authority reports voluntarily on the EU Taxonomy eligibility and alignment of its activities (Port of Rotterdam Authority, 2026). The EU Green Bond Standard, which entered into application on 21 December 2024, provides a voluntary standard for green bond issuers, based on EU Taxonomy criteria (European Parliament and Council of the European Union, 2023).