An Empirical Legal Analysis of Sustainable Finance Taxonomies Around the World

This presentation will present the paper of Dirk Zetzsche and Madeleine Pflücke-Mahoux, which is the first global, empirical assessment of sustainable finance taxonomies. Using a comprehensive, hand-collected dataset of 50 adopted and developing taxonomies per December 2025, comprising 2,900 observations, we employ qualitative content analysis to compare how jurisdictions translate sustainability objectives into legally and technically operational criteria. The study demonstrates that while taxonomies converge around core design features, such as objectives, sectoral scope, and methodological rigour, they diverge in governance models and legal embedding. These divergences also display income-level patterns: high-income jurisdictions tend to prioritise environmental objectives and climate-related granularity, while middle- and lower-income economies more frequently integrate social considerations alongside environmental goals. These deviations reflect broader tensions between regulatory harmonisation and openness to innovation in sustainable finance. By situating these empirical findings within the literature on financial regulation and sustainability transitions, the paper highlights how taxonomies function not only as classificatory tools but also as instruments of norm creation and policy coordination. Building on recent policy initiatives, we propose considerations for the evolution of global taxonomies amidst regulatory fragmentation and shifting political priorities.

The paper can be accessed here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6120206

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