Substantial evidence indicates that the negative consequences of human-induced climate change are worsening for both ecological and human systems1. Political decisions have been insufficient so far to achieve net greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions reduction targets. Despite governments’ COP (Conference Of Parties) pledges, climate plans, and NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions), the commitments undertaken with the objective of cutting and/or compensating GHG emissions by 50% by 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 have been unfulfilled. This failure to establish and achieve science-driven net-zero objectives by governments and businesses is leading to continued rises in global temperatures and exacerbating the impacts of climate change, both in terms of magnitude and frequency2.

Given the aforementioned context, it is imperative to shed light on the sectors and processes that contribute the most to emissions and to subject them to rigorous investigation. Amongst them, public procurement is worthy of particular attention. Public procurement is the process by which governments and state-owned enterprises purchase goods, services, or works from the private sector. Its financial size is impressive: around 12% of national GDP and 29% of total government expenditure in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries, or 6 trillion euros per year according to a recent study3. Even more striking is the estimate that public procurement is responsible for 15% of global GHG emissions, or 7.5 billion tons per year, roughly equivalent to 8-9 times the amount emitted by the entire aviation industry4.

A tracking study by CDP (the Carbon Disclosure Project) revealed that less than 3% of public administrations and companies worldwide require their suppliers to disclose data on climate-related aspects of goods, services, and construction works they offer5.

Against this background, it can be claimed that public procurement processes implemented within research projects embedded in missions related to climate change mitigation and/or adaptation worldwide represent a particularly critical case. It is frequent that partners of such projects include public administrations, which involves that large project budgets must be allocated through public procurement procedures. It is somewhat paradoxical that even these public procurement procedures, which are specifically intended to improve cities’ climate neutrality, have not yet incorporated the application of operational climate-related criteria.

Whether public expenditures made within research projects or other public investments non-funded by projects, it is of primary importance to include climate change considerations in the evaluation and selection of suppliers’ proposals in public procurement processes. This is currently being attempted by a growing number of approaches and instruments addressing sustainability and climate change mitigation issues in public procurements, which encompass several key concepts, each with its own nuances and focus areas.

Taking the European context as reference, the policy tool currently still under development, Green Public Procurement (GPP), provides guidelines and voluntary criteria for the public purchase of 14 product categories. GPP is defined in the relevant communication by the European Commission entitled “Public procurement for a better environment” as “a process whereby public authorities seek to procure goods, services and works with a reduced environmental impact throughout their life cycle when compared to goods, services and works with the same primary function that would otherwise be procured”6.

A comparable objective is pursued by the Net-Zero Industry Act introduced by the European Commission, which exemplifies regulation designed to boost the production of net-zero technologies7. The related concept of Net-Zero Procurement refers to the acquisition of goods and services that exhibit low or zero emissions throughout their operational lifespan and thus facilitate the transition to climate neutrality.

Looking beyond Europe’s borders, in 2022 the United States Environmental Protection Agency published the Recommendations of Specifications, Standards, and Ecolabels for Federal Purchasing, which aims to measure the sustainability of the purchased products and services based on available standards/ecolabels.

Nevertheless, the aforementioned guidelines:

  1. i.

    Remain incomplete and/or lack operable methods and specific criteria that can be applied in practice by government bodies and agencies. They are more statements of intent rather than well-established, widely shared, and consistently applicable tools;

  2. ii.

    The few, presently available instruments are merely voluntary. For procurement authorities, considering climate aspects during procurement entails efforts and increased costs. Therefore, it is unrealistic to expect that relying solely on individual governments’ initiatives would ensure a widespread adoption of climate proofing criteria. The European Environmental Bureau advocates that “the current EU Green Public Procurement framework should move from a voluntary to a mandatory instrument, by amending the EU public procurement directives”8;

  3. iii.

    Finally, a significant shortfall exists in most of the emerging approaches for incorporating climate criteria into public procurement: they primarily focus on addressing the environmental impacts of goods and services related to reducing GHG emissions, yet they neglect the aspect of adaptation. In the absence of criteria to determine which goods and services would contribute most to adaptation, there is a missed opportunity to select and purchase options that would reduce the inevitable impacts of climate change on human systems.

These deficiencies call for the adoption of an innovative perspective on public procurement. We build on the concept of climate neutrality, defined by ICLEI as “the targeted reduction of GHG emissions and GHG avoidance in own operations and across the community in all sectors to an absolute net-zero emission level at the latest by 2050. In parallel to this, cities, towns and regions must adapt to climate change and enhance climate resilience across all sectors”. We accordingly propose an expanded definition of “climate proofing” of public procurement that incorporates both mitigation and adaptation. We understand climate proofing as obtaining best value by purchasing goods and services that do not exacerbate climate change risks and possibly reduce its impacts, from suppliers who are most committed to science-based climate neutrality targets, in support of the purchaser’s purpose, policies, and strategic goals.

This definition is line with the approach of the European Taxonomy (Regulation (EU) 2020/852), a classification system published in 2020 that provides a list of sustainable economic activities. According to Article 3, in order for economic activities to be considered sustainable they must comply with the following principles:

  1. 1.

    “make a substantial contribution to at least one of Europe’s climate and environmental objectives, [i.e., the “Substantial Contribution” principle]

  2. 2.

    and “at the same time do not constitute a significant obstacle to the achievement of any of these objectives and comply with security measures” [i.e., the “Do Not significantly Harm (DNSH)” principle]9,10.

A re-interpretation of these principles on sustainable economic activities in order to apply them to procured goods and services leads to claim that governments should purchase only goods and services that meet the following criteria: firstly, they should have a low carbon footprint and contribute to the achievement of net-zero goals (mitigation), and secondly, they should be resilient to identified climate hazards, while also respecting the DNSH principle and even contribute to human systems’ adaptation to climate change.

Figure 1 provides a schematic representation of this comprehensive vision of public procurement climate proofing, which incorporates both mitigation and adaptation criteria.

Fig. 1: Proposal of new criteria for climate proofing of public procurement: a comprehensive vision that incorporates both mitigation and adaptation.
figure 1

The relationship between mitigation and adaptation may be characterised by tensions, trade-offs, paradoxes and synergies.

Full size image

Given its significant purchasing power, the public sector has the potential to serve as an innovative catalyst for change and the implementation of these principles. This would generate a demand for goods and services that are in line with net-zero objectives, thereby compelling suppliers to reduce their carbon footprint and adopt sustainable practices throughout their entire supply chains. Therefore, governments and corporations would not only contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation but also foster innovation and competitiveness in the marketplace.

Further developments

In order to deliver operable instruments to implement climate proofing in public procurement, multidisciplinary research should progress in the following directions: i) the development of applicable climate proofing criteria for the assessment and ranking of potential suppliers’ proposals (goods and services) in public procurement processes, covering both mitigation and adaptation; ii) the design of processes for sourcing and integrating the best available climate information throughout all phases of public procurement – from needs identification and requirements specifications to contracts award – which serves as basis for the evaluation and ranking of potential suppliers’ proposals (goods and services); iii) the development of further criteria to assess and rank potential suppliers, besides their proposals, according to their commitment to science-based climate neutrality targets; iv) the amendment of public procurement policies (for example, the Directive 2014/24/EU on Public procurement) to incorporate these considerations.

In this context, funded research and development projects provide an excellent opportunity to test and evaluate climate neutrality-related criteria and monitor the impacts of climate proofed public procurement processes.

Methods

Bibliography search

A bibliometric analysis-based literature review was conducted in Scopus and Web of Science with the objective of tracking the integration of climate change considerations into public procurement processes and the evolution of the related terminology.

The entered query was: “climate change” AND “public procurement*“. This search yielded 87 documents (cleaned results).

A web-based comprehensive examination of the regulatory framework governing public procurement in Europe and the USA was carried out in conjunction with the bibliography search and literature review.

Case studies

Moreover, as scientific partners of the ongoing Horizon Europe-funded Climaborough project, which is included in the EU mission “100 Climate-Neutral Cities by 2030,” we are currently engaged in a close collaboration with eight project partner cities (Grenoble, Cascais, Turin, Maribor, Ioannina, Athens, Differdange, and Sofia). Periodic surveys, interviews, workshops, and participatory modelling processes are conducted to build case studies.

It is noteworthy that we coordinated eight procurement procedures in the eight pilot partner cities for the acquisition of socio-technical solutions that contribute to the achievement of climate neutrality, successfully concluded in May 2024. These procedures included the test of innovative climate proofing criteria. The expected final outcome is the release of a user-friendly public procurement climate proofing tool applicable in different contexts.

Further publications will report on these experiences.