European governments are using green procurement to drive the low-carbon transition, but most current tracking only measures intent rather than actual emissions reductions. A new analysis shows that the EU's Public Procurement Data Space can be used to estimate real carbon savings, moving beyond simple checkbox exercises. By applying spend-based estimation to construction and vehicle sectors, researchers found that applying green criteria to all public contracts could increase carbon savings by over 20 times in some sectors. This highlights a massive untapped opportunity for the EU to accelerate decarbonization through better data usage.
