Launched on Monday 26 June, the European Climate Neutrality Observatory (ECNO) has published its first report on the European Union's progress towards climate neutrality, ahead of the Commission's first official assessment in September.
The ‘State of EU Progress to Climate Neutrality’ assessment, based on an analysis of available data up to 2021 - when the main policies of the ‘European Green Deal’ were proposed - examines the changes observed in a set of more than 100 economic and social indicators and compares them with European benchmarks.
The report notes that the pace of the transition is too slow to achieve the objectives set, and that certain areas, such as the financing of the fight against climate change, require greater attention. As a result, €46.2 billion was spent on fossil fuel subsidies in 2020. This trend has increased with Russia's invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, the EU is devoting “too little capital to climate investments”.
Electricity supply and energy renovation of buildings are also set to accelerate. The share of renewable energies in electricity generation needs to increase more rapidly - it has been growing at a rate of 1.5% between 2016 and 2021, which needs to rise to 3.2% - while the reduction in emissions in the buildings sector needs to be 7.5 times faster.
In addition, the ‘just transition’ is a key concern. While 2020 marked a pause in the reduction of poverty and social exclusion, employment in the green sector continues to grow, with increases of 3.7% in the environmental goods and services sector between 2015 and 2020 and 1.3% in the renewable energy resources sector between 2016 and 2021. But the EU needs to step up green investment to make up for the jobs lost in the fossil fuel industry and create opportunities and growth.
Read the report: https://aeur.eu/f/7qh (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)