Climate change and biodiversity targets in the implementation of NDICI-Global Europe, IPA III and the Decision on the Overseas Association including Greenland

The NDICI-Global Europe Regulation includes climate and biodiversity targets and a series of other targets which are complementary and not mutually exclusive, such as on social inclusion and human development, gender equality, official development assistance, migration and forced displacement. These reflect key political priorities and commitments and aim to guide its implementation.

During the last EU budgetary period (2014-2020), INTPA made steady progress in integrating climate and environment into its programmes and actions, and managed to honour its commitments to allocate 20 % of its budget to climate objectives and to double biodiversity funding.

EU commitments for 2021-2027 are more ambitious, reflecting the Green Deal aspiration to step up international action to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises and promote a just transition to climate-neutral, green and inclusive development pathways. To achieve this, we must go beyond business as usual and ensure the right measures are in place to deliver, building on past experience and achievements.

Climate – The NDICI-Global Europe Regulation sets a target of 30 % of NDICI-Global Europe funds to contribute to climate objectives. European Commission President von der Leyen pledged an additional EUR 4 billion in the 2021 State of the European Union (SOTEU) address. This demonstrates the Commission’s high ambition but also raises expectations for NDICI-Global Europe climate programmes to deliver, thus making mainly DGs INTPA and NEAR and the FPI accountable for achieving the climate target. In monetary terms, this means committing about EUR 27.8 billion in support of climate objectives.

Biodiversity – NDICI-Global Europe is expected to contribute to the EU ambition of providing 7.5 % of annual spending under the EU budget to biodiversity objectives by 2024 and increasing this to 10 % in 2026 and 2027. Global Europe will also contribute to the Commission’s commitment to double its external funding for biodiversity – in particular for the most vulnerable countries – as announced by President von der Leyen in the 2021 SOTEU address. 

These targets concern NDICI-Global Europe as a whole, where contributions will be made from the overall amount of EUR 79.462 billion through geographic, thematic and rapid-response programmes.

The Instrument for Pre-Accession assistance Regulation (IPA III), applicable to the enlargement region, also includes targets pertaining to climate, biodiversity and gender equality.

For overseas countries and territories associated with the EU, the Decision on the Overseas Association including Greenland (DOAG) applies. This includes targets pertaining to climate and biodiversity. Actions under the DOAG are expected to contribute 25 % of the overall financial envelope to climate objectives, whilst also contributing to the biodiversity target.

According to both NDICI-Global Europe and IPA III regulations as well as DOAG, the existing overlaps between climate and biodiversity goals should be considered: each euro of climate spending should ideally also contribute to biodiversity (and the other way around) and thus address both targets in one action.

To measure these contributions, the EU uses the Rio Markers in line with the methodology of the OECD Development Assistance Committee. Climate actions can be marked as contributing to climate mitigation, adaptation or both. There are three possible scores: the action has climate as a principal objective (Rio marker score 2); climate is amongst the significant objectives of the action (Rio marker score 1); or the action does not target climate (Rio marker score 0). For those cases where both adaptation and mitigation scores are marked as significant (1) or principal (2), the highest score is taken into account, avoiding double counting. By EU convention, the Rio marker scores are translated into financial contributions (100 % of the action’s budget for a principal objective, 40 % for a significant objective and 0 % if not targeted).

The same approach is followed for contributions to the biodiversity target, based on the scoring of the biodiversity Rio marker.

Contributions to the targets are subject to close scrutiny, within the Commission, by other EU institutions (e.g. European Parliament, European Court of Auditors), and internationally, notably at OECD level, by civil society and in the context of regular reporting to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

To find out more:

• EU guidance on Rio marking
• OECD Rio Markers for Climate Handbook
• Quick Tips documents on integration of environment and climate change.

Dedicated trainings and support are available on the Capacity4Dev Environment, Climate Change and Green Economy Group.