綠色預算、綠色預算項目清單和棕色預算項目清單
Green budgeting, Green budgetary item lists, and Brown budgetary item lists

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Green budgeting, Green budgetary item lists, and Brown budgetary item lists

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Key points

1. Green budgeting is a tool and a process focusing on the budget to help policymakers to manage and organize the policy or measures that working to achieve the climate and environmental goals of the European Union

2. The Commission's Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN) published green and brown budgetary item lists to help member state to select the measures for their own

     The European Union provides two definitions of Green Budgeting. First, green budgeting means using the tools of budgetary policymaking to help achieve climate and environmental goals. Second, it was understood as a process whereby the environmental contributions of budgetary items and policies are identified and assessed with respect to specific performance indicators, with the objective of better aligning budgetary policies with environmental goals (European Commission, n.d.). In 2019, the European Commission published a document called ‘The European Green Deal’ in an attempt to tackle the climate and environmental-related challenges with a strategy that aims to transform the EU into a fair and prosperous society, modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy with zero net emissions of greenhouse gases in 2050 and where economic growth is decoupled from resource use (European Commission, 2019). The EU as a collective group is working beyond their national border with international efforts to build an alliance to strengthen their environmental ambition as an integral part to implement the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda and the sustainable development goals.

     For the government, in order to achieve any goals and plan the strategy, budgeting plays a key role. The Commission has estimated the cost to achieve the climate and energy goals that will require €260 billion of additional annual investment. In addition, the Commission has proposed a 25% target for climate mainstreaming across all EU programmes and another alternative revenue stream are based on the non-recycled plastic-packaging waste and allocating 20% of the review from the auctioning of EU emissions Trading Systems to the EU budget. Moreover, at least 30% of the InvestEU Fund will contribute to climate change along with related sustainability projects that will lead to the EU budget. A collaboration with the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group will work with national promotional banks and institutions to double their climate target from 25% to 50% by 2025 to become Europe’s climate bank. As part of the green finance program, mechanisms such as Just Transition Mechanism under the Sustainable Europe Investment Plan that working towards a transition climate friendly energy which the mechanism is associated with European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund Plus.

     For the private sector, the EU Commission will also integrate the private sector into the budgeting plan by assisting the private sector with foundations for sustainable investment and helping the private sector to develop standardized natural capital according to the EU standard or the international standard. The Commission will increase opportunities for investors and companies to help the private sector to identify sustainable investments and ensure the credibility, as well as, provide support in managing climate and environmental risk into the financial system. On the other hand, the national budgets are playing a key role in the transition using green budgeting will help to redirect public investment, corruption, and taxation on green agendas. Green budgeting is helping the national government to create benchmark green budgeting practices while sharing the best practices to work on green budgeting.

     The Commission’s Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN) has published two documents that include a list of budgetary items covering net environmental impact which are separated broadly as green budgetary items and brown budgetary items. The main goal of the document is to provide a background for the member states to implement their own methodology. The member states could use the document classified into two groups with categories and subcategories and selected measures. The selected measures proposed by the DG ECFIN include tax and revenue measures, and tax expenditure. The process of the list of budgetary is from information compiled from member states’ budgets, EU budget, OECD, and EU datasets along with extra committee decision-making. However, there are several items that belong to both green and brown budgetary items which could lead to questioning of the selected measures. Firstly, an item that is ambiguous is not included such as hydro-power stations benefitting the climate but have a negative impact on biodiversity. Second, although the documents provide details information they did not account for different degrees of green or brown, and measures that could have environmental impacts of very different magnitude. Third, the definition of a green item does not include ‘greening’ items, and lastly, some items on the list are treated as brown items for which there are no alternatives.

     The green budget items consist of 21 sectors with each sector divided into category and subcategories, and examples. The transport sector is separated into transport infrastructure with subcategories are clean urban transport infrastructure, sustainable and low-carbon railways, and greening of ports. Some examples under clean urban transport infrastructure are support for clean transport infrastructure, and energy efficiency renovation of transport infrastructure while sustainable and low carbon railways include support for electric trains or railways TEN-T core network. Another example of housing and community amenities includes example ranging from different measures such as providing subsidies for energy and material efficient renovations for houses and rehabilitation of old housing, an income-tax deduction for passive houses, and providing incentives for citizens to phase out their fossil fuels boilers for replacement with renewable heating systems.

     The brown budget items consist of 19 sectors with relatively fewer items on the category and subcategories even if the item belongs to the same sector. For example, the transport sector only consists of infrastructure and mobility with subcategories of unsustainable transport infrastructure and unsustainable transport and mobility. Examples of measures support road and highway infrastructure and support for airport construction, and fossil fuel support such as subsidies for fossil fuel consumption. In the brown budget items, examples of measures are mainly focused on fossil fuel consumption or fossil fuel support.

     Overall, the EU focused on green budgeting in an attempt to tackle climate and energy issues among the member states are expanding beyond the national level to the international level and cross-sector collaboration, in order for the different sectors to optimize the budget tools and support to transition for the goal of tackling climate and energy issues. The EU provides funding, standard, and assistance in different ways to support the transition which includes the documents on green and brown budgetary items that help different member states and different sectors to screen and select the measures according to the categories provided by the DG ECFIN.

Picture credit: https://www.socialistsanddemocrats.eu/newsroom/2022-budget-eu-will-have-strong-progressive-core-focused-social-and-green-issues

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來源 References

European Commission. (2019). The European Green Deal. EUR-LEX, from https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1588580774040&uri=CELEX%3A52019DC0640

European Commission. (2022). Explanatory note - Green and Brown Lists. EU, from https://economy-finance.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2022-01/explanatory_note_green_and_brown_lists.pdf

European Commission. (2022). List of broadly ‘brown’ budget items. EU, from https://economy-finance.ec.europa.eu/economic-and-fiscal-governance/green-budgeting-eu_en

European Commission. (2022). List of broadly ‘green’ budget items. EU, from https://economy-finance.ec.europa.eu/economic-and-fiscal-governance/green-budgeting-eu_en