Identify biodiversity harmful incentives (including subsidies).

Within the EU policy context, subsidies harmful to biodiversity include energy (including fossil fuel) subsidies harmful to the environment and non-energy environmentally harmful subsidies.

Main legislation in place:

Under the Regulation on the Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action, notably Article 25, Member States must report every two years on their national objectives to phase out energy subsidies, in particular for fossil fuels.

The Decision on a General Union Environment Action Programme to 2030, notably Article 3(h)(iii) on enabling conditions to attain the priority objectives for the period up to 31 December 2030, requires the Commission to set out a methodology to identify other (non-fossil fuel) environmentally harmful subsidies, on the basis of which Member States will identify such subsidies and report them regularly to the Commission, allowing for a Commission report on the level and type of such subsidies in the Union.

Legislation proposed:

N/A

Other policy instruments:

Mapping of energy subsidies and in particular fossil fuel subsidies is reported regularly in the framework of the Governance Regulation. The ‘2022 Report on Energy Subsidies in the EU’ and ‘2023 Report on Energy Subsidies in the EU’ provide a full report on energy subsidies.

This EU contribution aligns with GBF Target 18, the element on identifying incentives, including subsidies, harmful for biodiversity.

For financing and capacity-building, please refer to the EU contributions to Targets 19 and 20.