The European Court of Auditors (ECA) is at risk of not achieving the EU’s climate and energy goals for 2030, according to a report it published today.

“Achieving the EU’s 2020 climate and energy targets was partly the result of external factors such as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which helped reduce emissions“, says the Court of Auditors in its statement, which questions whether the EU can win the bet of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% compared to 1990 levels by 2030.

“Little evidence was found that action to achieve these goals would prove sufficient“, concludes the EAC’s special report.

The ECA found, among other things, a lack of transparency about how EU Member States achieved their national binding targets by making use of the “flexibility capabilities»: the contribution of some of them was not as expected and, in order to achieve their targets, they resorted to other means, such as the purchase of emission allowances or shares of energy from renewable sources from Member States that had exceeded their targets.

Little information was found on the actual costs of achieving the targets for the EU budget, national budgets and the private sector, and on the actions that actually contributed to achieving the targets.

As a result, it is not easy for citizens and other stakeholders to ascertain whether the EU is pursuing its objectives in a cost-effective manner, nor to draw lessons for the 2030 target obligation.

The ECA confirms that the EU is performing well compared to some industrialized countries in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

However, it does not account for its total emissions, which would be about a tenth higher if those caused by trade and international aviation and shipping were included.

Regarding the future and the highly ambitious goals for 2030, it is worrying that there are no indications that the available funding will be sufficient to achieve them. This is particularly true of private sector funding, which is expected to be significant.

It is noted that the EU committed to spend at least 30% of its budget for the period 2021-2027 in favor of climate action.

This figure corresponds to around €87 billion per year, less than 10% of the total investment required to achieve the 2030 targets, which are estimated at around €1 trillion per year.

The remaining investments are expected to come from national and private resources.