It turns out that the call of the European Court of Auditors to increase spending on climate action is finally being heard, as a result of our efforts to demonstrate that the EU budget must serve higher climate ambitions.
A report from the European Court of Auditors published on 22 November 2016 highlighted “a serious risk that the EU’s target of spending at least one euro in every five of the EU budget on climate action between 2014 and 2020 would not be met”.
Against this background, CAN Europe strongly advocated for making the EU Budget compatible with EU’s climate goals and the Paris agreement objectives. It seems our efforts have paid off to some large extent. The ECOFIN council has recently endorsed that at least 20% of the current EU budget genuinely go to climate action. It has also urged the Commission and Member States to identify areas in spending programs with untapped potential to increase climate action investments, to monitor the climate impact of EU funds and to further mainstream climate action in the EU budget, for the current period and for the new EU budget post-2020.
CAN Europe will follow this up!