2022-09-15
The National Audit Office assessed the readiness for solely green public procurement from 2023 onwards
In order to address the challenges of climate change that are becoming more and more relevant every year, the Lithuanian Government is committed to upholding the EU’s most ambitious climate change targets and to ensure that, from 2023 onwards, all goods, works, and services required by the public sector are acquired only through green procurement, while public institutions use only green electricity and heat and clean transport. The National Audit Office, having assessed the readiness of buyers to carry out green procurement, states that they are not yet ready to implement such an ambitious goal.
The assessment report notes that the impact on national finances and the availability of sustainable products in the short term have not been assessed in order to create a 100 % green public procurement system. Green goods are up to 3.5 times more expensive than products without such characteristics and their choice is much narrower. The analysis showed that more than a fifth of the suppliers did not participate in the procurement due to the environmental protection requirements, and more than a third of the buyers noted that the supply was insufficient.
“In order to achieve 100 % green public procurement, environmental criteria must apply even to product groups whose greenness is purely formal and which imposes an administrative burden on procurers. Greening of some products is possible only through requirements for packaging of goods, transport conditions, conclusion of contracts, and not for the product itself, for instance: buying software or expert consultations, garbage sorting services, geothermal heating installation works, electric cars or recyclable products", says Jolanta Indriulienė, the audit team leader.
The rapidly growing volume of green procurement in recent years shows the potential of public procurement participants to step up this type of procurement, however, 66 % of procurers believe that due to the lack of expertise in green procurement, the complex application of environmental criteria and limited financial resources, 100 % of green procurement will not be achieved in 2023.
According to the assessment of the National Audit Office, the move towards sustainable consumption is welcome and to be achieved, but given the geopolitical situation, the public procurement system should not focus solely on a formal attempt to achieve a 100 % green procurement target in 2023. The region’s closest neighbours with the most similar geopolitical and economic situation and the culture of consumption have not set such high targets for green procurement. For example, Estonia’s target for 2023 is 30 %, Latvia has not set a quantitative target, Poland‘s target was 25 % by 2020, and green procurement has been a priority since 2022.