EU counts up how much its ‘green’ agenda will cost each year
Europe needs more than half a trillion US dollars a year in additional investments to achieve the climate goal of reducing carbon emissions by 2030.
“To meet the EU’s 2030 climate targets, additional investments of over €470 billion ($540 billion) a year will be required,” the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Monday, speaking at a conference on the EU budget in Brussels.
She noted that to accumulate such a level of investment, the EU will have to involve public, private, inter-European and international sources.
Also on rt.com EU’s green energy policy must be based on economic & climate concerns, not political competition – Hungarian FM to RTThe official also stated that 30% of the ‘Next Generation EU’ pandemic recovery fund will be used to support the bloc’s “green transition,” while another 20% of all EU post-pandemic recovery funds will be directed to stimulate innovation and the digital transformation of the European economy and society.
The $860 billion ‘Next Generation EU’ fund was created by the European Commission in 2020 as a pan-European instrument to finance the economic recovery of EU states after the Covid-19 pandemic. Von der Leyen suggested that the projects implemented within its framework will ensure a 2% annual growth in EU GDP. She noted that these projects are already being carried out, financed through loans in the form of green bonds. Europe is currently the world’s largest issuer of green securities, and the market’s interest in them is consistently growing.
Also on rt.com Europe’s carbon tax could cost Russia nearly $12 billion by 2030Green bonds are a type of fixed-income instrument that is specifically developed to raise money to fund climate- and environment-related initiatives. The EU issued the first bulk of its green bonds under its ‘Next Generation EU’ agenda last month, raising an unprecedented $14 billion – the largest green bond order ever booked in global capital markets. The money raised will be distributed among EU member states for spending on cleaner energy and other projects aimed at helping the bloc achieve a 55% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030.
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