Cycles of hope

Thank you to Jiří Dusík and Alan Bond, authors of the paper, and also to Thomas Fischer and IAPA, for having invited my views and commentary to the paper on the taxonomy of sustainable investments. The paper brings a positive message, of hope for the future of environmental assessment (EA). Dusík and Bond strongly argue that the taxonomy of sustainable investments have ‘a power to significantly influence EIA and SEA systems globally’ and ‘the potential to radically change the environmental outcomes of decision-making’. The authors also argue that these new taxonomy frameworks are able ‘to deliver a change in mindsets’ concerning sustainable development expectations, associated with EA as policy tools, and ‘further strengthen the existing EA systems and allow them to better address environmental sustainability priorities of the 21st century’. I read the paper with great interest, and I agree there is a potential role for EA instruments in contributing to the enhancement of sustainable financing. Sustainable financing taxonomy appears to be a good idea. It seems a good trigger to raise the attention to the role that EA can play to improve the sustainability of projects. But that requires a change in EA dominant mindsets, from being seen by many developers has an instrument to avoid, to become a truly useful instrument to help build sound and sustainable development.