Port of Rotterdam Authority, EU Taxonomy Screening of Port Investment
The EU Taxonomy (Regulation (EU) 2020/852) is part of the EU Green Deal. It sets criteria to decide whether an economic activity is environmentally sustainable (Port of Rotterdam Authority, 2026). The Port of Rotterdam Authority reports voluntarily on how its activities perform against the taxonomy, as part of the sustainability statement in its annual report (Port of Rotterdam Authority, 2026). The screening covers its turnover, operating expenditure (OpEx) and capital expenditure (CapEx).
Approach
Screen against all six objectives. The Authority checks its activities against the six taxonomy objectives: climate mitigation, climate adaptation, water, circular economy, pollution and biodiversity (Port of Rotterdam Authority, 2026).
Separate eligible from aligned. It first identifies which activities are eligible. Most eligibility comes from CapEx projects, where the Authority dismantles, maintains, renovates and develops real estate, road and rail infrastructure, and port and waterway infrastructure (Port of Rotterdam Authority, 2026).
Apply the full alignment test. For activities eligible under climate mitigation and climate adaptation, it tests the technical screening criteria, the do no significant harm criteria and the minimum social safeguards (Port of Rotterdam Authority, 2026).
Report all three financial measures. It reports taxonomy results separately for turnover, OpEx and CapEx, and shows which eligible items did not meet the criteria (Port of Rotterdam Authority, 2026).
Results
For 2025, taxonomy-aligned CapEx covered building and maintaining railways, developing, renewing and maintaining waterway infrastructure, enabling CO2 transport by pipeline, and electrifying a vessel (RPA) (Port of Rotterdam Authority, 2026). Aligned OpEx was maintenance of the Authority's vessels. Maintenance of berths, mooring facilities, quay walls and slopes was eligible but not aligned. Rental income and traffic management service fees were eligible but not aligned, so no turnover was reported as aligned.
Transferability
A DMC port authority can use the same steps with the ASEAN Taxonomy or a national taxonomy: list its revenue and spending lines, mark which are eligible, then test each eligible item against the screening criteria and safeguards.
Reporting eligible items that fail the test, as Rotterdam does, shows lenders where the gaps are. Screening CapEx before projects are approved may make it easier to label projects for green loans or bonds later.
The EU and ASEAN taxonomies are not equivalent, so criteria must be taken from the taxonomy being applied.
Sources
All information used for this case study was based on publicly available resources.