Green Budgeting in the EU: a coherent approach for improved policy making

Greening national budgets is key for climate action and the green transition. Over the last four years and under the strong impetus of the European Green Deal, the Commission has been working closely with the Member States to encourage the adoption of green budgeting at the national level. Concurrently, at the EU level but correspondingly also in the Member States, various approaches aimed at greening public and private financial management tools have emerged, such as: the green mainstreaming of the EU budget and climate tracking in the Recovery and Resilience Plans, the EU taxonomy for sustainable finance, reporting for the National Energy and Climate Plans, the 'do‑no‑significant‑harm' principle, a methodology to identify environmental harmful subsidies, and green bond standards.

This conference took stock of these processes while analysing their consistency and coherence, to improve guidance to policy makers. It also discussed the way forward for green budgeting, thus supporting the green transition, while highlighting the relevance of developing such methodologies under the Green Deal.