Low-carbon economy

Cohesion Policy plays an important role in supporting the EU’s transition to a low-carbon economy, in line with the Energy Union strategy.

For the 2014-2020 funding period, the rules on the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) required Member States for the first time to allocate a mandatory minimum proportion of the available funding to the low-carbon economy:

20% of national ERDF resources in more developed regions
15% in transition regions
12% in less developed regions

Member States have gone well beyond this minimum proportion, and €40 billion from the ERDF and Cohesion Fund are now scheduled to be invested in the low-carbon economy during 2014-2020 (twice the amount spent in this area during the previous funding period).

This will help Member States, regions, local government and cities to implement much needed investments in energy efficiency in buildings, renewable energy, smart distribution electricity grids or sustainable urban transport and also in research and innovation in these areas. These investments will help to decrease costly energy imports, diversify our energy sources, tackle energy poverty, cut emissions, create jobs and support small and medium sized businesses.

It is also possible to receive support for investments in sustainable transport and mobility and smart energy distribution, storage and transmission systems under thematic objective 7