EU must cut emissions and also adapt to climate change, auditors warn

The European Union’s 2030 and 2050 greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets and objectives “will not be achieved without significant additional efforts”, says a new “Landscape Review of EU Action on Energy and Climate Change” published by the European Court of Auditors. The report quotes several points of criticism from an advisory report by German auditors from 2016, such as energy surcharge exemptions for energy-intensive industry at risk of ‘carbon leakage’. The auditors had “found that the responsible ministry had not investigated whether high electricity costs were actually encouraging companies to relocate or whether such costs were offset by gains in energy efficiency”, the review says.

Read a press release in English here and the report in English here.

For background, read a CLEW article on German auditors’ critique: Government lacks overview of Energiewende costs- auditors.