How well is the EU doing in its pursuit of climate neutrality by 2050? Are national long-term strategies and national energy and climate plans up to the task? Are the recovery efforts in line with this goal? Across EU policy, a range of processes are in the process of developing methods to assess progress towards climate neutrality – but there is no integrated set of "net zero indicators" being developed to do the job. And simple greenhouse gas emission data is not enough to judge whether the necessary transition is happening "under the hood" of Europe's economic sectors.

A proposal for such monitoring methodology has been developed by Ecologic Institute and IDDRI – commissioned by the European Climate Foundation – to provide a stimulus for debate on how progress measurement could be done. The analysis also provides concrete recommendations for the many places in which a coherent set of indicators could be used to provide better planning and monitoring – from the European Green Deal to the EU Climate Law to the European Semester, the Recovery and Resilience Facility and the 8th Environment Action Programme.

This event presented the main insights from the report and its insights were discussed with a range of experts from different institutions, to get a better understanding of the following questions:

• How can the EU improve its understanding of progress towards climate neutrality?
• How can integration between the various parallel processes be realised?
• What is the potential role of the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change in this context?

Our panel of experts:

• Cécile Hanoune, head of Unit C2 (Governance and effort sharing) at DG CLIMA, European Commission (confirmed)
• Jytte Guteland, Member of the European Parliament and rapporteur on the EU Climate Law (confirmed)
• Eduardo Santos, Head of the Climate Department at the Portuguese Environment Agency – currently representing the EU Presidency (confirmed)

Moderator: Erica Hope, Director for Climate Laws and Planning at the European Climate Foundation

This event was being organised by Ecologic Institute for the European Climate Foundation.