On October 15^th, the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) organised the event an EU Budget to address the climate emergency, in cooperation with CAN Europe, the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung and the European Climate Initiative (EUKI). The event brought together representatives from the civil society, stakeholders and environmental NGOs to discuss a key topic for the sustainable transition: how to finance the climate emergency.

During the day different views were presented by member States representatives, officials from the European Commission, experts in financing and climate activists, showing how a mix of different solutions and actors is needed to achieve a just and fair transition.

“What we finance today, will be the energy system of tomorrow”, says @tenBrinkPatrick at the conference of an #EUKI project. He advocates for an EU budget that addresses the #ClimateEmergency. ⚡️💰🇪🇺

Watch the project’s video ➡️ https://t.co/ArgSp5CqRa pic.twitter.com/VEFOoLLGna

— European Climate Initiative (@EUKI_Climate) October 15, 2019

About the conference

The conference explored how the EU budget can be used to address the climate emergency and highlighted how we have only 10 years left to avoid an irreversible lock-in of fossil fuels and polluting infrastructure. A lock-in that Europe cannot afford.

The discussion involved

• a political debate on the future EU budget
• a session on the lessons learned from previous funding
• a panel debate stressing that we have a short window of opportunity and structural funds cannot bear the cost of climate inaction.

An EU-wide debate

The EU budget– or Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) – is still under negotiation and this key decision will affect how EU funds (for example through Cohesion Policy or the Just Transition Fund) will be allocated for climate issues and mitigation actions. A strong Europe and a coherent MFF are needed to assign enough funding to energy and climate.