The European Commission has admitted in response to a records request that it did no analysis of the impacts before making a controversial proposal to offshore some of its climate actions to poorer countries.
The use of carbon credits, which can be purchased by funding carbon reductions outside the EU, would be allowed under an amendment floated by the commission in July that set a new target for the bloc to cut its climate pollution until 2040.
But the basis for this choice did not involve any formal advice from the experts in the EU’s climate department, DG CLIMA.
In response to a document request by POLITICO seeking the commission’s analysis of the economic and emissions impact of the policy, the EU executive branch responded that although it had consulted the economic analysis and modeling unit, “We regret to inform you that DG CLIMA does not hold any documents.”
