How are ASEAN Member States approaching sustainable finance frameworks? A new UNEP FI policy brief reveals that Member States’ sustainable finance taxonomies align with the regional ASEAN Taxonomy in key areas—while addressing their own national climate, environmental, and social priorities.

The policy brief, “Sustainable Finance Taxonomies in ASEAN: Towards Regional Harmonization”, provides an overview of the major components of the ASEAN Taxonomy and considers the structure of each current ASEAN Member State’s national taxonomy and its alignment with ASEAN Taxonomy elements such as environmental objectives and sector prioritization, using detailed matrices.

Among other findings, the analysis shows that Member States’ taxonomies share the objectives of climate change mitigation and adaptation, while some also list other priorities important for their respective national priorities, such as biodiversity protection, circular economy, and marine resource management. There also appears to be significant overlap in sector coverage among the national taxonomies despite different levels of progress in developing sector-specific criteria. As these national taxonomies continue to develop and expand criteria to more sectors, they are gradually showing greater alignment with the ASEAN Taxonomy.