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LONDON, 22 July 2020: Foresight Group LLP (“Foresight”), the specialist renewable energy infrastructure investment manager, is pleased to announce that it has attained European Union (“EU”) Taxonomy validation from Aardvark Certification Limited (“ACL”) for its 231MW greenfield onshore wind project in Sweden.
With accelerating investor interest in, and appetite for, sustainable and ESG investment opportunities, the EU Taxonomy will provide greater transparency for renewable energy and other sustainable infrastructure projects. In particular, the EU Taxonomy will demonstrate the genuine impact a renewable energy asset has in respect of material global sustainability themes, such as consistency with decarbonisation objectives set out under the 2015 Paris Agreement. Accordingly, Foresight believes there is significant value in having its assets’ compliance with the Taxonomy validated by an independent third party. This will provide investors with additional reassurance regarding projects that are making a genuine contribution to global sustainability targets.
Foresight acquired the Skaftåsen wind farm through Foresight Energy Infrastructure Partners (“FEIP”, the “Fund”) alongside a syndicate of leading European Institutional Investors in April of this year. Subsequent to the acquisition, ACL performed an independent validation on the onshore wind project, which was found to be compliant with all relevant criteria. As a leading sustainability and ESG-focused investment manager, Foresight has taken this pioneering step which it acknowledges will soon become a mandatory requirement.
The EU introduced its “Green” Taxonomy as a means of defining the criteria that economic activities must meet in order to be considered “sustainable”. To be certified as compliant, a project must meet the stipulated ESG requirements and must be proven to contribute substantially to no fewer than one out of six environmental objectives, of which ‘climate change mitigation’ is the most relevant to renewable energy.
By setting out transparent, science-based, industry-specific thresholds to direct investment flows towards building a low carbon, resilient and resource-efficient economy, the Taxonomy is set to play a major role in the EU’s €1 trillion “Green Deal”, which is anticipated to require the mobilisation of £175 billion of investment every year for the next thirty years.
Richard Thompson, Partner at Foresight and Co-manager of FEIP said: “We are fully supportive of the EU Taxonomy and are delighted to have received this independent validation from ACL for our Skaftåsen onshore wind project. We will be applying this approach across the entire FEIP portfolio in due course and are proud to be investing for a smarter future, by visibly making a positive contribution towards the EU’s goal of Net Zero by 2050.”
Nicholas Johnn, Director of ACL added: “We were delighted to be selected by Foresight to undertake this validation exercise using the EU Taxonomy framework. Designed specifically to help identify investments that can be considered as truly sustainable, we are pleased to say that Foresight’s 231MW Skaftåsen wind project meets all the necessary criteria and can be considered as EU Taxonomy compliant.”
Foresight is working towards a second close for FEIP which is on target for €500 million. Foresight is partnering with Worthwhile Capital Partners as Placement Agent for the Nordic region and Astrid Advisors for Europe ex Nordics.
