This document provides technical guidance on the climate proofing of investments in infrastructure covering the programming period 2021-2027.

The guidance contained in this document meets the following requirements laid down in the legislation for several EU funds, notably InvestEU, Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Cohesion Fund (CF), and the Just Transition Fund (JTF):

• It is consistent with the Paris Agreement and EU climate objectives, which means it is consistent with a credible greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction pathway in line with the EU’s new climate targets for 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050, as well as with climate-resilient development.
• It follows the principle ‘energy efficiency first’, which is defined in Article 2(18) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999.
• It follows the principle ‘do no significant harm’, which is derived from the EU’s approach to sustainable finance and enshrined in Regulation (EU) 2020/852 (Taxonomy Regulation).

Based on lessons learnt from climate proofing major projects over the period 2014-2020, this guidance integrates climate proofing with project cycle management (PCM), environmental impact assessments (EIA), and strategic environmental assessment (SEA) processes, and it includes recommendations to support national climate-proofing processes in Member States.