When it comes to tackling climate change, the EU has always been eager to talk the talk. In 2011, the Commission vowed to spend a fifth of its upcoming budget on ‘climate action’. Last year, it went even further: it said that one euro in every four – or 320 billion euros (£290bn) – was going towards dealing with climate change. But a damning review from the European court of auditors suggests the EU might not be walking the walk on this issue.
The biggest contribution to the EU climate spending target (100 billion euros (£90bn)) comes from agriculture. But subsistence payments to farmers are included in this vast number (as long as the farmer getting the cash meets some basic standards, which most farmers do). As a result, it says the EU ‘continues to overestimate the contribution of certain common agricultural policy schemes to tackling climate change’. What’s
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