Green recovery funds were misused

According to a new European Court of Auditors report reported by Euronews, Croatia, Greece and Portugal are among EU member states that have claimed they are spending EU funds on climate change measures that are in fact "not as green as described" ". . Auditors say some states "inflated potential climate contributions for some projects such as clean urban transport and forest climate adaptation" from the Recovery and Resilience Instrument, which was created as part of the EU's pandemic recovery fund. According to Reuters, the EU has pledged to spend at least 37 % of its €700 billion COVID-19 recovery fund on measures to tackle climate change. While countries say they have exceeded this target, with €275 billion – or 42.5 % of funds – earmarked for climate, “this figure may overestimate EU green spending by at least €34.5 billion”, the news portal said. As examples, he cites "expenditure on IT systems and salaries" which were wrongly labeled as "green". (Marta Pacheco, Euronews, more at carbonbrief .com)