Rwanda’s Green Taxonomy is a framework that aims to define sustainability criteria, foster shared understanding and truston what constitutes a green investment, as well as prevent greenwashing.
The development of Rwanda Green Taxonomy is seen as a crucial step in laying a solid foundation for the country's green transformation, developing new industries, and becoming the financial hub of East Africa. It is the second taxonomy in Africa (after South Africa) and the first in Africa to include the agricultural sector. It is also an innovative framework for the inclusion of activities that contribute to climate change adaptation and resilience.
The need for the taxonomy to meet Rwanda's development objectives was first identified in the Rwanda Sustainable Finance Roadmap published in October 2022 for Rwanda’s financial centre (the Kigali International Finance Centre) with support from UNDP. The development of Rwanda Green Taxonomy is supported by the German development agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and co-financed by the European Union. A consortium of the Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) and Ambire Global was commissioned to provide technical assistance for the project, building on their extensive experience in developing national and international taxonomies.