Social Climate Fund

About the Social Climate Fund (SCF)

The SCF was created alongside the ETS2 for emissions from fuel combustion in buildings, road transport and additional sectors. The fund will support a fair transition towards climate neutrality, helping alleviate the social and economic impacts of the ETS2. It will provide EU Member States with dedicated funding so that the most affected vulnerable groups, such as households in energy or transport poverty, are directly supported, and not left behind during the green transition.

The SCF will support people all around the EU. Member States may use the SCF to support structural measures and investments in energy efficiency and renovation of buildings, clean heating and cooling and integration of renewable energy, as well as in zero- and low-emission mobility solutions. Member States will also have the option of spending part of the resources on temporary direct income support.

To access funding, Member States will draft national Social Climate Plans that list and explain all planned measures and investments in support of vulnerable households, transport users, and micro-enterprises. The plans should be based on a country-wide consultation of local and regional authorities, representatives of economic and social partners, civil society, and youth organisations, as well as other stakeholders. This is to ensure that the measures and investments mentioned in the plans will adequately target and effectively support the most vulnerable groups. Member States are to submit their plans to the European Commission by June 2025. The Commission will assess them and disburse payments to Member States only if the milestones and targets set in the plans are achieved.

To finance these measures and investments in support of the most vulnerable groups, the SCF will pool revenues from the auctioning of allowances from the ETS2 as well as 50 million allowances from the existing EU ETS. Together with a mandatory 25% contribution of the Member States to their Social Climate Plans, the SCF should mobilise at least EUR 86.7 billion of public fundings over the 2026-2032 period.

• More information on the budgetary aspects of the Fund

Implementation of the Social Climate Fund

To enable the implementation of the SCF, Member States have identified the authorities responsible for the preparation of their Social Climate Plans.

To facilitate process, the Commission launched a dedicated initiative to help Member States develop their plans under the Technical Support Instrument. 10 Member States (Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Greece, Finland, Croatia, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, and Slovakia) are being supported through this instrument over the 2024-2025 period.

Through a dedicated formation for the Social Climate Fund of the Commission Expert Group on Climate Change Policy (CCEG-SCF), the Commission  enables a regular exchange of views with Member States on the preparation of the Fund.

Good practices for the Social Climate Plans

To facilitate this exchange of views and mobilise all stakeholders, the Commission has published several documents on good practices for drafting Social Climate Plans and for the general preparation of the Fund. Find out more about these good practices. Additional guidance will be made available.

Documentation

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