The EU needs to invest 470 billion euros a year for its climate target
The European Union (EU) needs to invest around 470 billion euros each year to achieve its 2030 climate target, which consists of reducing its net CO2 emissions by at least 55% by 2030.
These are estimates by the European Commission, said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in her opening speech at the EU's annual budget conference on Monday.
"To reach the EU's climate targets for 2030 we need investments of around 470 billion euros every year, according to our estimates," von der Leyen said in her speech via video conference.
According to the head of the EU executive, everyone knows that action against climate change must be "stepped up" and "Europe is leading these efforts", with a commitment to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, i.e. not to release more greenhouse gases than it can absorb.
This objective is reflected in the multiannual budget 2021-2027 and in the recovery funds (also known as NextGenerationEU), which "in current prices, we are talking about 2.1 trillion euros", of which 30% is earmarked for the fight against climate change, she said.
This transition will be "more difficult for some than for others", such as, for example, for regions that "still depend to a large extent on coal" and for which the budget has been endowed with a Just Transition fund of more than 19 billion euros, the EC president recalled.
In addition, she added, they have proposed a new Social Climate Fund worth more than €70 billion, "designed to help vulnerable consumers and households".
With NextGenerationEU, Von der Leyen stressed, the EU has become the "largest issuer" of green bonds worldwide.
This is due, she said, to "a growing demand for sustainable finance", as evidenced by the European bond issues last June and October.
When the EU went to the market in June to raise money for NextGenerationEU for the first time, "bonds were 7 times oversubscribed," Von der Leyen recalled.
And last October a first issue of 15-year green bonds attracted record demand of 135 billion, more than eleven times the supply.
"This is excellent news for our green targets and for the international role of the euro," she stressed.
The second objective is the digital transition, as the pandemic has shown that "Europe is not keeping up with its global competitors when it comes to technological innovation and investment", according to Von der Leyen, who called for "closing this gap".
With the EU's multiannual budget and NextGenerationEU, the German politician said, the EU is taking "a big leap in this direction".
"20% of the funds of the recovery and resilience mechanism will be invested in the EU's digital transformation", she recalled.
And she stressed that the "good news" is that most member states are exceeding targets and investing in digital "like never before".
Based on the 26 national plans submitted so far - only the Netherlands is missing - more than €46 billion will be spent on improving digital public services and €24 billion on improving businesses, he said.
And another 23 billion euros will go to helping citizens learn the skills needed for the jobs of the future, she added.
Von der Leyen said she was convinced that these investments would "significantly" accelerate the EU's digital transition, "from digital connectivity to supercomputing, from artificial intelligence to cybersecurity".
