On Thursday 5 April, 31 civil society organisations – environmental NGOs, industrial associations, regional authorities and think-tanks – came forward to urge the European Commission to propose, on 2 May, a multi-annual financial framework (MFF) for the post-2020 period that is fully compatible with the Paris Climate Agreement and the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs).
“We call for a legacy to be left that will put the EU on the road to attaining the Paris Climate Agreement objectives and sustainable development goals (SDGs), making it possible to create a better life for its citizens, decent jobs, and to stimulate innovation and competitiveness”, write the signatories of an open letter to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
To achieve this, the organisations call for:
- Significant increases in the share of climate spending throughout the budget, well above the current 20%; - a guarantee that the whole of the MMF will be climate proof, which mainly means ruling out any investment in unabated fossil fuels infrastructure and environmentally harmful subsidies;
- Alignment of all finance flows and fiscal incentives to a low carbon pathway as committed to under the Paris Climate Agreement. EU funding should serve the achievements of EU 2030 climate and energy targets and the 2050 vision of a decarbonised EU economy;
- A guarantee that EU spending will be in vertical coherence with national investments for attaining the SDGs.
“A credible EU budget must address the common and long term challenges Europeans are faced with: climate change is one of them”, commented the director of Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe, Wendel Trio. He went on to add: “The EU budget has a huge untapped potential to catalyse the clean energy and mobility transition”.
For the time being, 14 EU countries are calling for the next MMF to devote at least 20% of resources to climate actions and for the remaining 80% to be climate proof (see EUROPE 11975). In its vision of the MMF defined in March, the European Parliament calls for 30% of MMF spending to be climate-related (see EUROPE 11981). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)