Mainstreaming climate objectives in EU Cohesion Policy - a guidance briefing

In February 2013, the European Council agreed the final overall figures for EU spending in 2014-2020, known as the Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF). A total of €960 billion was agreed for commitment appropriations and €908 billion for payment appropriations.

On 27 June 2013 the Council and the Parliament reached agreement on a compromise that did not change the overall figures but allowed for additional flexibility in the implementation of the budget and scheduled a mid-term review of this process.

The 2014-2020 MFF is characterised by a range of policy innovations, some of which are highly relevant with regards to the environment and climate change. Importantly the Council and the Parliament have for the first time endorsed a specific spending objective for climate related activities, amounting to 20 per cent of the overall MFF.

The main approach to achieving this objective is via the ‘mainstreaming’ of climate change objectives and obligations across different funding instruments. Climate mainstreaming can be understood as a two-tiered approach, which includes:

• Vertical mainstreaming: Setting out investment priorities and ensuring a sufficient scale of dedicated funding for climate mitigation and adaptation activities; and
• Horizontal mainstreaming: Ensuring the effectiveness and result-orientation of funding through adequate procedural and institutional safeguards and tools so that the entire portfolio of investments is in line with climate policy objectives.

Climate mainstreaming is particularly relevant for the future Cohesion Policy, which is the key investment policy tool for Europe’s regions. For the period of 2014-2020 Cohesion Policy will provide €325 billion, which will trigger sustainable growth across Europe’s regions. It is important to note that the future Cohesion Policy will be governed by a restricted set of thematically concentrated spending areas, including a stronger focus on low carbon developments in all sectors, and will require Member States to spend a defined minimum shares of ERDF funding on climate-relevant activities.