Dear Commissioner Moedas, dear Commissioner Oettinger

14 Member States have pressed for at least 20% of the EU’s post-2020 budget (“Multi-annual Financial Framework”) to be spent on climate-relevant work, while the European Parliament is pushing for a 30% share as soon as possible. One of the programmes within the MFF will be FP9, supporting research and innovation. We want this programme to spend at least 35% of its budget on climate-related work.

Quotas of at least 20% and 35% respectively apply to the current MFF and the current programme supporting research and innovation, Horizon 20203. But in the years since they were adopted, climate has risen up the political agenda, most obviously with the Paris Agreement of December 2015. The new impetus behind climate action must be hardwired into the design of FP9. 35% should very much be considered a minimum.

Important work remains to be done on decarbonising transport as well as heating and cooling, reducing the cost of renewable energy, boosting energy efficiency and optimising the energy system as a whole. Simultaneously, manufacturing capability in the technologies of the future must be retained or expanded. In agreeing to “pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius”, the Paris Agreement signatories have acknowledged the need to push harder for performance improvements in clean energy technology and accelerate its take-up.

Horizon 2020’s 35% earmarking has helped the European Commission comply with the entry requirement for Mission Innovation, the pact to double public clean energy R&D spending. It created the headroom in Horizon 2020 that is allowing the Commission to spend more on clean energy R&D from subheadings beyond “Societal Challenge – Secure, Clean and Efficient Energy” than it had intended in 2013. An earmarking in FP9 will make it easier for the European Commission to comply with a future MI target or similar initiatives.

Yours sincerely,

Dear President Tusk,

We are writing to you on behalf of the European Alliance to Save Energy (EU-ASE) and the European Alliance of Companies for Energy Efficiency in Building (EuroACE) whose members have operations across the 28 Member States of the European Union, directly employ 465,000 people in Europe.

On the 23rd of February, the European Council will hold an informal discussion to set priorities on the post-2020 Multi Annual Financial Framework (MFF).

The post-2020 MFF will define the financial means to address societal, economic and environmental issues of European and global concern. As this is the first budget following the Paris Agreement, it is a unique opportunity for the European Union to show vision and coherence with its long-term policy objectives, deliver tangible benefits to European citizens and to show that it is serious about living up to its commitments.

In the light of the above, the post-2020 MFF will need to be developed in compliance with current EU and global energy and climate targets. The EU High-Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance estimated that to achieve the EU’s targets for energy and climate policy alone, additional annual investments of €170bn are required.1

This upfront investment, needed to fill the significant investment gap, will foster sustainable growth and create jobs across all EU countries and regions. Investments in energy efficiency typically create value through delivering multiple benefits (energy security, public health, improved air quality) and support innovation and competitiveness.

The MFF holds the key to help plug this investment gap. As the lion share of the required investment will have to come from the private sector, the EU budget should be designed to mobilise private financial flows – hopefully with a multiplier effect of 1:15.2

This will allow the EU to support investments on climate-related projects on a large scale, in line with the Art.2 of the Paris Agreement, which explicitly refers to a “finance flow consistent with a pathway towards low GHG emission and climate-resilient development”.

At the same time, an EU budget drawn up to provide the necessary resources to decarbonize the European economy will help foster EU technological leadership and strengthen the domestic market for clean energy technologies and solutions.

We wish you a fruitful meeting and would be grateful if you could share our views with the Heads of State and Heads of Government.

There are great challenges and significant expectations regarding the post-2020 MFF and we look forward to an outcome that will show the world that European Union is fully committed to tackle the climate change and decarbonize the EU economy.

Yours Sincerely,

Monica Frassoni                                                                                    

President

European Alliance to Save Energy

Adrian Joyce  

Secretary General

EuroACE