European Union spending on climate action risks being overestimated in the absence of a sound and consistent methodology for tracking funds across policy areas, warns a new report published on Thursday 2 July by the European Court of Auditors.
Rather than creating a financing instrument dedicated to the fight against climate change, the European Commission has chosen to devote a certain percentage of the EU budget to this objective, i.e. at least 25% for the period 2021-2027.
The auditors consider that this approach could be effective, but stress that it is imperative that it be accompanied by a monitoring method to measure the financial contribution of the various sources of EU funding to the climate goals and to assess whether the expenditure has been effective in meeting those objectives.
In particular, they consider that the negative impact of expenditure that leads to increased emissions and could therefore accelerate climate change has not been taken into account, especially in the areas of agricultural and cohesion policy.
According to the Court of Auditors, the Commission thus continues to overestimate the potential contribution of EU spending on certain Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) schemes to combating climate change, as it has not revised its monitoring method, despite the publication of a report by the Court pointing out shortcomings in 2016.
Finally, the report also singles out the field of research, a sector that is lagging behind in achieving its ambitious target of spending 35% of its expenditure on climate action.
To consult the report: https://bit.ly/2NQd0Yl (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)