United Internet worked together with the departments concerned to analyze the Taxonomy-eligible economic activities under the “climate change mitigation” environmental objective using the relevant technical screening criteria. The technical screening criteria for the “transition to a circular economy” environmental objective were not examined for the reporting period, in line with the European Commission’s specifications.
The analysis of the economic activities under the “climate change mitigation” environmental objective produced the results below.
United Internet operates an ISO 50001-certified energy management system for its own data centers. However, the existing measures are not sufficient to meet the EU Taxonomy’s technical screening criteria, since among other things no independent third-party verification of the criteria set out in the EU Code of Conduct on Data Centre Energy Efficiency was performed. In addition, the third-party data center operators have not submitted confirmations that they meet the technical screening criteria set out in the EU Taxonomy. For these reasons, United Internet has not reported any Taxonomy-aligned activities under Activity 8.1 for the 2023 reporting period.
CapEx and OpEx for horizontal issues and infrastructure-related topics relate to the purchase of output from Taxonomy-aligned economic activities and to individual measures enabling the target activities to become low-carbon or to lead to greenhouse gas reductions. This CapEx and OpEx is therefore limited to the “climate change mitigation” environmental objective (“category (c)”).
Proof must be provided by partner enterprises of the purchase of output from Taxonomy-aligned economic activities if expenditures are to qualify as Taxonomy-aligned. Partner enterprises were requested to provide such proof for CapEx and OpEx relating to activities 6.5 and 7.7. At present, no sufficient proof is available demonstrating that the criteria required have been met. As a result, the expenditure has not been reported as Taxonomy-aligned for the 2023 reporting period.
In line with Commission Notice (C/2023/305 (FAQs)), United Internet did not perform a Taxonomy alignment assessment for those activities that are not material to its business activity due to the lack of data and proof of compliance with the technical screening criteria.
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