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Part II. Greening in practice |
As global challenges related to environmental sustainability and climate change intensify, integrating these considerations into development efforts becomes crucial. This chapter examines the greening of European Union cooperation throughout the intervention cycle, emphasising the importance of early and consistent action.
Every phase of the intervention cycle, from country context analysis to project formulation and implementation, provides key entry points for embedding environmental considerations. The sooner greening initiatives begin, the greater the opportunity for impactful change. The 'green lens' approach encourages assessing every action for its environmental and climate implications, ensuring that projects not only avoid harm but also contribute positively to sustainability goals.
This chapter outlines essential measures, tools, and assessments that guide the integration of environmental factors into policy dialogue, programming, and project execution. By promoting effective greening within EU cooperation, we aim to support both development objectives and environmental stewardship, demonstrating our commitment to a sustainable future.
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2.1.
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2.1.1. Overview
The integration of environment and climate change in EU cooperation must start as early as possible and be carried forward throughout the intervention cycle. The later the greening efforts start, the more limited the opportunities for transformational change will be.
This section indicates the entry points for the integration of environment and climate change in the different phases of the intervention cycle[11]. It indicates the greening measures/actions that should be taken, and the tools available. Although this section is common to all implementation modalities, greening opportunities specific to budget support and investments (blended finance and budgetary guarantees) are developed in sections 2.2 and 2.3 of the toolbox.
The greening of EU cooperation should be a driving force starting from the early stages of policy dialogue that informs multi-annual programming, through to the definition of priority areas and objectives for each programme, the identification and formulation of flagships, Team Europe Initiatives, investment pipelines, and individual actions and investments, their implementation and monitoring, and up to the evaluation phase.
Figure 4. Overview of key greening entry points and tools in the intervention cycle
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INTERVENTION CYCLE PHASE
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ENTRY POINTS
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TOOLS
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• Country/regional context analysis
• Definition of priority areas and objectives
• Mid-term review
• Country/Regional Environmental Profile
• Environment & Climate risk screening (screening for SEA)
• RMF+
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• Avoid excluded activities
• Maximise opportunities for transformational change
• Guarantee the ‘do no harm’ principle
• Set biodiversity and climate contribution targets
• For investments: screening of investment project pipelines
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• Environment & climate risk screening
• Environment & climate screening of investment project pipelines
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• Stakeholder consultations and dialogue; dialogue with FIs in
• case of investments
• Complete SEA, EIA and/or CRA (if and as relevant)
• to inform action design
• Develop specific greening objectives, measures and indicators
• Validate contributions to biodiversity and climate targets
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• Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA)
• Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
• Climate Risk Assessment (CRA)
• Rio Markers
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• Complete SEA, EIA and/or CRA (if and as relevant)
• Implement environment / Climate Risk Management Plan (if relevant)
• Green public procurement
• Monitoring of green indicators
• For investments: review monitoring reports by FIs / participate in monitoring missions
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• Environment Management Plan (EMP)
• Climate Risk Management Plan (CRMP)
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• Lessons learnt on green alignment and contributions
• Dissemination
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• (no specific tools)
2.1.2. Greening EU cooperation: obligations and the green lens approach
Effective greening of EU cooperation involves compliance with mandatory requirements and the implementation of the green lens approach.
Greening EU cooperation mandatory requirements include:
- Comply with the national environmental legislation and international obligations.
- Avoid excluded activities under Art. 29 of the NDICI-Global Europe regulation.
- Ensure compatibility with the recipient country's Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).
- Avoid activities that cause significant adverse effects on the environment or the climate:
> Apply the environmental & climate risk screening to all activities.
> As determined by the screening, prepare environmental (and social) impact assessments, Strategic Environmental Assessments, or other relevant assessments, and ensure the implementation of the necessary measures to avoid, prevent or reduce and, if possible, off-set the significant adverse effects on the environment and climate.
The green lens approach reminds us to always look at the environmental and climate change aspects and implications of the actions and decisions we are taking. The green lens approach has three dimensions:
- Promoting a positive agenda by always seek opportunities to make positive contributions to environmental and climate objectives, including to the climate and biodiversity spending targets.
- Consider the double materiality of actions proposed by:
> Systematically taking into account how the proposed actions could have significant adverse impacts on the environment and the climate, and taking measures to mitigate them in line with the mitigation hierarchy[12] – this implies compliance with the DNH principle.
> Systematically taking into account how environmental degradation and climate change can affect the sustainability and effectiveness of the proposed actions (e.g. accelerated siltation of dams due to land degradation).
Under the 'green lens' approach, all actions and decisions must take into consideration opportunities and risks to contribute to an environmentally sustainable, low carbon and climate resilient development
The greening of EU cooperation does not stop where the intervention cycle ends. The Commission must lead by example. Efforts should also be made to green EU delegations and project management (see section 2.5).
OVERVIEW OF KEY GREENING TOOLS
(a detailed description is given in Annex 1 on Greening Tools)
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Country / Regional Environmental Profile (CEP/REP)
The CEP / REP is the main tool to inform the greening of programming. It is a document that provides an overview of the key environmental and climate change issues in the country/region and their trends, and provides concrete recommendations on how EU cooperation can contribute to address risks and capitalise on opportunities.
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Environment & climate risk screening
The screening determines the need to undertake dedicated assessments in the form of a Strategic Environmental Assessment, an Environmental Impact Assessment and/or a Climate Risk Assessment. Even if none of the above dedicated tools are necessary, the screening process helps identify environmental and climate risks and opportunities that can be integrated in the design of the action.
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Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA)
An SEA examines the environmental risks and opportunities associated with a sector/ national policy or strategy. It can be used to determine the soundness of a strategy as part of the eligibility assessment for budget support; it provides recommendations to enhance the environmental and climate change performance of a budget support programme and the associated strategy; and it should be an essential component of any activity that supports the update or development of a sector policy or strategy in environmentally sensitive sectors.
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An EIA assesses the potential impacts on the environment (direct, indirect, secondary, cumulative, transboundary, short-, medium- and long-term, permanent and temporary, positive or negative) of a proposed development project and its alternatives, and defines measures to avoid, minimise, offset and compensate for significant adverse impacts. The need for an EIA is determined by the environment and climate risk screening. For certain countries, and often under procedures of financial institutions, an EIA can also take the form of an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) if social impacts are included.
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Climate Risk Assessment (CRA)
A CRA assesses the vulnerability of a project to climate change and determines measures to minimise vulnerability and for risk management. A CRA can be prepared as a stand-alone assessment or be integrated as part of an EIA (if an EIA is required). The need for a CRA is determined by the environment and climate risk screening.
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Environmental Management Plan (EMP)
An EMP should be one of the products of an EIA process. It defines the details on how impact mitigation measures are to be implemented and monitored for a given project. The EMP must be reflected in the contractual documents. An EMP can also take the form of an Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP) in the case social impacts are included.
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A CRMP is one of the products of a CRA. It defines how climate risk reduction and risk management measures are to be implemented and monitored in a given project. The CRMP must be reflected in the contractual documents.
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Screening of investment project pipelines tool
The tool for the screening of investment project pipelines helps prioritise projects ac- cording to their potential to make positive contributions to environmental sustainability, climate resilience and low-carbon development, as well as according to their environ- mental and climate risks.
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Rio markers
The Rio markers are used by the Commission to measure and track financial contributions to the four Rio themes (climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, biodiversity and combating desertification) as well as to the EU’s spending targets on cli- mate change and biodiversity. Coefficients are applied to translate the Rio marker scores into financial contributions.
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Greenhouse gas emissions ex-ante accounting tool
The ex-ante GHG accounting tool is a standardised method for HQ and delegations to quantify and reveal GHG emissions and emission reductions connected to a given EU ex- ternal action. Its purpose is to help verify whether an action aligns with climate policies; indicate its contribution to climate mitigation; and provide recommendations for reducing the expected impact of projects emitting GHG or enhancing their positive impact to reducing GHG emissions.
2.1.3. Greening programming
Background
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Overview
Content Tools
Apps