The EU's General Court has dismissed a legal challenge seeking to overturn the European Commission's decision to classify forest biomass energy as a sustainable investment under the bloc's green finance taxonomy.
The ruling, delivered on 18 March 2026 in Case T-575/22 (Robin Wood and Others v Commission), dismissed an action seeking the annulment of a Commission decision from July 2022, which had rejected a request for internal review of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/2139.
The regulation established the technical screening criteria under which forestry management and bioenergy activities qualify as environmentally sustainable.
The applicants, Robin Wood and six other environmental NGOs, argued that the Commission's classification of forestry and forest bioenergy activities as sustainable was unlawful and violated EU law, including the Taxonomy Regulation itself.
The court sided fully with the Commission, finding it could not be faulted for declining to tighten the taxonomy criteria beyond what EU law requires.
The ruling follows a closely related judgment in September 2025, in which the General Court similarly dismissed a challenge by environmental NGO ClientEarth. That case concluded a legal battle begun in 2022, in which ClientEarth argued the Commission was violating its own laws by including the burning of woody biomass for energy in the taxonomy as sustainable. The court rejected all of ClientEarth's arguments.
The rulings confirm that the Commission has wide discretion in setting and applying the taxonomy's technical screening criteria, and that politically sensitive sectors including bioenergy may continue to be recognised as taxonomy-aligned provided certain conditions are met.
The EU classes bioenergy as renewable on the basis that plants and trees absorb CO₂ as they grow, which at least partially offsets emissions from combustion. Biomass used in the EU must also comply with sustainability criteria designed to protect old forests and habitats.
Critics argue that this carbon accounting framework overstates the climate benefits of burning wood, and that the taxonomy label risks directing investment towards activities that increase rather than reduce near-term emissions. The rulings are expected to face further appeal to the Court of Justice of the EU.
EU court upholds green finance label for biomass energy investments
