Green Budgeting

This chapter investigates green budgeting, a budgetary process whose ambitious aim is to align a government’s allocation choices with environmental objectives.

After a quick referral to the history of green budgeting, we examine the central role of tagging as a methodology, as well as the technical and governance challenges green budgeting must currently face.

Public administrations could significantly benefit from green budgeting in offering companies and households a long-term perspective on the environmental transition. We therefore formulate some recommendations on how to support an effective introduction of this process.

The last section of the chapter shows the state of the art of green budgeting in 13 European countries: only a few countries are preparing green budgets—mainly at central government level. We conclude by briefly presenting the French case, and some of its most recent—and interesting—developments.