In recent years, European Union Member States have spent just over half of the revenues from the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) on real climate action, says the NGO WWF in a report published on Tuesday 29 November.
Based on data provided by Member States and information provided by the European Environment Agency (EEA), the report shows that EU countries have dedicated only 71.9% of the €88.5 billion from the sale of emission allowances in the period 2013-2021 to climate action.
The remaining €25 billion was spent on general government expenditure, the WWF analysis further suggests that the 71.9% figure is exaggerated. According to the NGO, at least €12.4 billion that was supposed to contribute to climate action “was in fact likely spent on things that were unhelpful - or even counterproductive - in climate terms”.
And they concluded: “Overall, this means that only 57.8% of all ETS revenue was likely spent on genuine climate action”.
The issue of the use of revenues is one of the central topics of the fifth session of inter-institutional negotiations (‘trilogues’) on the revision of the ETS, on Tuesday evening 29 November.
During this meeting, the co-legislators will also try to agree on the modalities for the inclusion of the maritime sector in the ETS, after a first failed attempt during the previous trilogue (see EUROPE 13069/17). EUROPE will continue to follow this story.
See the WWF report: https://aeur.eu/f/4cf (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)