The fight against climate change is, by its very nature, a fight that transcends national boundaries. In order to achieve our climate goals, develop new clean technology, deploy the best solutions and drive our economies towards a more sustainable path, action at the EU level is essential. EU action can exploit significant economies of scale, pull together resources to reach critical mass and contribute to strengthening the EU in the international arena.
The EU budget makes a crucial contribution to the fight against climate change. Over the course of the 2021-2027 period, the EU is set to spend at least 30% of its budget on climate-relevant objectives.
What do we do?
Climate mainstreaming requires EU programmes in all policy areas to consider climate priorities in their design, implementation and evaluation phases. This approach was first adopted in the context of the 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework. In the context of the 2021-2027 budget, the Commission has further developed its approach to climate mainstreaming. All measures marked as relevant to the climate address one of the following objectives.
- Adaptation. This involves finding solutions to and ensuring preparedness for the adverse effects of climate change, enhancing resilience, taking appropriate action to prevent or minimise the damage such effects can cause and taking advantage of any opportunities that may arise.
- Mitigation. This refers to action that limits the magnitude of long-term climate change. Climate-change mitigation generally involves reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
The current climate mainstreaming architecture is set out in the staff working document on climate mainstreaming for 2021-2027. This architecture entails:
- an overall climate spending target of 30%, supported by sectoral targets in relevant legislation;
- embedding EU budget action in the European Green Deal policy framework by adopting the biodiversity strategy and the farm-to-fork strategy, which will impact the way programmes are designed;
- enhancing the climate responsiveness of programmes and initiatives financed under the EU budget that do not directly tackle the climate challenge, through reinforced climate proofing and the application of the ‘do-no–harm’ principle;
- a climate adjustment mechanism, which will enable the Commission to take compensatory action to address possible gaps in achieving the climate spending targets of individual EU spending programmes, by ensuring that the deficit is addressed either within the same programme in the subsequent years of its implementation or by other programmes, so that the overall 30% climate spending target for the EU budget can be achieved as planned.
How much do we spend?
Climate contribution in 2021 to 2027 (million EUR).
Source: European Commission.
In 2023, the Commission is continuing to revise and update all the data available, including further consolidating existing data and applying a more granular methodology where possible. For the 2021-2027 period, the EU budget – including NextGenerationEU – is projected to contribute EUR 578 billion to climate spending, representing 32.6% of the budget envelope.
To achieve this, the relevant basic acts include a set of targets that underpin the overarching 30% climate spending target under the EU budget. A complete overview of climate expenditure is presented at the end of this document and in each programme performance statement.
Using the percentage of climate spending per programme calculated on a commitment basis, for both the 2014‑2020 and the 2021-2027 multiannual financial frameworks, it is possible to make a first estimate for the amount of climate-related spending at the payment level. This can be achieved by applying the average commitment percentage of climate-relevant spending by programme in each multiannual financial framework period to the outstanding payments by programme in each multiannual financial framework period at the end of 2022. This methodology leads to an estimated climate contribution at the payment level of around 34.2%. This estimate excludes the debt-financed Recovery and Resilience Facility. Going forward, the Commission will work to further refine this estimate.
Climate methodology
For the 2021–2027 multiannual financial framework, European Parliament and the Council agreed during the negotiations of the respective programmes in 2020 on the design of the climate methodology based on the EU coefficients (e.g. for the Recovery and Resilience Facility). The Commission summarised this methodology in the communication on the performance framework of the EU budget under the 2021-2022 multiannual financial framework, The methodology assigns three different coefficients (0%, 40% or 100%) based on a list of possible activities. The Commission has published a climate mainstreaming architecture staff working document, where it has outlined the principles of its methodology, including the integration of the ‘do no (significant) harm’ principle.
The amounts above are calculated based on commitment appropriations as following:
- For direct management, past years figures are taken directly from the financial system of the Commission (ABAC). This reflects the most updated data, including transfers and decommitments, in line with the European Court of Auditor recommendations. For future estimates, work programmes and historical values are taken into consideration.
- For shared management, past and future figures are presented on the base of the Operational Programmes and CAP Strategic Plans agreed with the Member States, and updated according to the annual reports.
- For indirect management, the figures are based on the existing targets and agreements with the implementing partners, as well as their annual reports.
Climate Adjustment Mechanism
To guarantee that the budget-wide 30% target will be reached, the Climate Adjustment Mechanism has been designed to function as a monitoring instrument.
The Climate Adjustment Mechanism entails the following:
- The specification of sectoral targets underpinning the overall 30% budget-wide target. These targets have been included in articles of the legislation for programmes involving significant pre-programming (e.g. the Recovery and Resilience Facility and the common provisions regulation), to limit the risk of deviation.
- Enhanced monitoring and reporting, through more in-depth tracking in the Commission’s financial information-technology system and a specific section in the programme performance statement for each individual spending programme taking stock of progress achieved in relation to the target for the respective programme.
- A mechanism whereby the Commission will propose corrective action in line with the specific basic act provisions in case of deviations in the programming that could endanger the 30% target.
Planned expenditure in 2021-2027 EU budget in absolute amounts and estimated percentage with respect to each programme envelope.
Source: European Commission.
On the basis of available information, the EU budget is on track to fulfil both the overall 30% target and its sectoral targets. Each programme performance statement includes a dedicated section presenting the climate contribution for the programme, which specifies the action undertaken to ensure proper financing. This section will be updated every year on the basis of the most up-to-date data and information available and will explain any deviations from the expected performance and remedial plans.
Some examples of what we have financed
Under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, by the end of 2022, disbursements were made for the fulfilment of 134 milestones and targets in the field of the green transition. These included the replacement of fossil-fuel based heating systems in Austria, companies receiving support for energy efficiency and renewable energy use in industry in Croatia, and a reform setting out the scope of one-stop shops and their financing for energy efficiency renovations in Spain.
The Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership is a Horizon Europe co-funded partnership that aims to pool research and innovation investments and align national programmes at the pan-European scale, taking into consideration the sea-basin (Mediterranean, Black Sea, Baltic Sea and North Sea) and Atlantic Ocean dimension. It will boost the transformation towards a climate-neutral, sustainable, productive and competitive blue economy by 2030, while creating and supporting the conditions for a healthy ocean for the people by 2050. In doing so, the partnership will address the green transition, digital transformation and recovery, and will ultimately contribute to the SDGs.
Through the energy-efficiency measures of InvestEU-supported projects, the programme has contributed to the production of over 4 716 megawatts of electricity from renewable energy sources. Under the space programme, the Copernicus Climate Change Service works together with businesses and government entities across the globe to turn raw climate data into sector-specific information aimed at users within the field, such as businesses, researchers and policymakers. The service develops tailored information products on key indicators such as temperature, sea ice and CO2 levels.
The common agricultural policy supports carbon storage (carbon-farming measures, peatland restoration, etc.) and contributes to preventing and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Emissions from agricultural production decreased from 483 million tonnes in 1990 to 382 million tonnes in 2020.
In 2022, the Connecting Europe Facility deployed more than 70 electric charging supply points along the trans-European transport network of Czechia, Croatia, Poland and Slovakia. Furthermore, the energy strand of the Connecting Europe Facility financed the integration of renewable energy into the grid and the transmission of renewable generation to major consumption centres and storage points, for instance through the smart electricity grid project SINCRO.GRID. The project facilitates development and the safe and efficient integration into the grid of new renewable electricity generation in Croatia and Slovenia. It also improves the security of supply in Croatia and Slovenia, and in the neighbouring countries of Italy, Hungary and Austria, by targeting potential difficulties caused by the variability of intermittent renewable energy.
Under the programme for environment and climate action (LIFE), the Swedish project Sunrise, to which funding was awarded in 2022, aims to widen consumer access to innovative organic photovoltaic solutions in the context of the internet of things and, in the long term, also to build integrated photovoltaics, offering affordable organic solar cells in huge volumes and thereby accelerating the global shift to sustainable energy solutions. The project is expected to increase its production capacity for organic photovoltaics to 20 000 000 modules per year and to reduce the production costs by 85%.
Thanks to Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe support, the action ‘green and smart cities’ in Tanzania aims at contributing to sustainable and inclusive urban development for the benefit of local urban communities and businesses. This includes promoting green cities for the benefit of their communities and businesses, enhancing employability and entrepreneurship through skills development, contributing to poverty reduction and economic empowerment through financial inclusion and social protection, fostering the creation of green jobs through the development of small and medium-sized enterprises and providing them with access to finance, supporting government systems’ ability to deliver effective policy development and implementation and rendering the business environment more conducive to private-sector growth and increase investment and trade. Expected results of the programme include 10 green infrastructures developed through EU resources in selected cities, a reduction of 20% of leakage on the water pipe networks by 2025 (from 30% in 2021) and provision of 10 online trainings, data analysis completed, and digital applications developed with EU resources to strengthen the planning in urban resilience in selected cities using digital skills and technology. The EU contribution to this action, which is a Team Europe Initiative and will last 48 months, amounts to EUR 75 million.
Climate-related administrative expenditure is not included in the mainstreaming estimates. However, the Commission is committed to sustainability. Thus, through the eco-management and audit scheme system, the Commission is implementing a monitoring programme to assess, measure, monitor and reduce the environmental impact of its daily activities. In 2021, reporting was expanded to cover 10 sites in nine Member States, including six executive agencies and the Commission representations in Valetta (Malta) and Vienna (Austria). More than 39 000 staff and subcontractors and over 1.6 million m2 of Commission buildings are now included. Using this data, it has been calculated that the Commission’s emissions fell by 43% in 2021 compared to 2019.
Moreover, significant results were achieved when looking at core parameters during the 2014-2021 period, including the following:
- energy for buildings = – 23% (megawatt hours / person),
- office paper = – 84% (sheets/person/day),
- water use = – 47% (m3/person),
- non-hazardous waste = – 52% (tonnes/person).