What is the difference between eligible and aligned?

Eligible means the activity is described somewhere in the Taxonomy Delegated Acts. Aligned is stricter: the activity must substantially contribute to an objective, do no significant harm to the other five, and meet the Minimum Safeguards. Only aligned activities count as sustainable for reporting.

What are the six environmental objectives?

Climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, sustainable use of water and marine resources, transition to a circular economy, pollution prevention and control, and protection of biodiversity and ecosystems. An activity must substantially contribute to at least one.

What does Do No Significant Harm mean?

DNSH requires that while an activity helps one objective, it must not seriously damage any of the other five. For example, a hydropower project contributing to climate mitigation must not significantly harm water resources or biodiversity. Each has technical criteria in the Delegated Acts.

What are the Minimum Safeguards?

Alongside the environmental tests, an activity must respect the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the ILO core labour conventions. Failing these blocks alignment regardless of environmental performance.

Is this a legal determination?

No. This is an orientation tool to help you scope the assessment. Final alignment requires meeting the specific technical screening criteria in the current Delegated Acts, ideally with legal and sustainability advisers.

EU Taxonomy Eligibility & Alignment Checker

The EU Taxonomy is the bloc’s classification system for environmentally sustainable economic activities. Investors, large companies, and financial-market participants must report what share of their turnover, capex, and opex is Taxonomy-aligned. This checker helps you find where your activity sits and what you must prove.

How it works

The Taxonomy applies a layered test. An activity is first checked for eligibility, then for the three alignment conditions:

eligible   = activity is described in a Delegated Act
aligned    = substantial contribution to ≥1 of 6 objectives
           AND do no significant harm (DNSH) to the other 5
           AND meets the Minimum Safeguards

This tool maps your selected sector to the objective(s) it can substantially contribute to, then lists exactly which DNSH objectives remain to be assessed — that is, the five objectives you are not contributing to but must avoid harming.

Notes and example

Renewable electricity generation is eligible and substantially contributes to climate change mitigation and adaptation. To become aligned it must still pass DNSH on water, circular economy, pollution, and biodiversity, meet the technical screening criteria in the Climate Delegated Act, and satisfy the Minimum Safeguards on human rights and governance. By contrast, coal or oil electricity generation is not eligible at all. Treat the objective mapping here as a starting point: the binding detail always lives in the technical screening criteria of the relevant Delegated Act, which are updated periodically.