Climate proofing of public procurement: a gap to be filled

AdMaPlace March 16, 2025

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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.

Categories: Climate-change mitigation

Tags: Climate-change mitigation

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AdMaPlace March 16, 2025

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AdMaPlace March 16, 2025

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AdMaPlace March 15, 2025

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AdMaPlace March 9, 2025

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AdMaPlace March 10, 2025

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Further developments

Methods

Bibliography search

Case studies

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