Nov 2023 – A report PS4SD made for WFF Europe on the implementation of the 2021 revision of the European Commission’s Impact Assessment (IA) guidelines and tools shows some reason for concern. Based on a review of 21 Impact Assessment the study found that the mandatory checks on consistency with EU Climate Law and the do-no-significant-harm principle are not yet well applied. Many IA reports do not report transparently enough about the results of the climate proofing. The DNSH principle is lacking a clear definition in the Better Regulation toolbox. In 11 out of the 20 reviewed IAs, the overview on relevant SDGs was missing in the Annexes of the respective IA reports. In cases where the overview was provided, it mostly seems to have been done as an ex-post “tick-the-box” exercise. Only in very few cases did SDGs play a role in the definition of the problem, the objectives, the design of policy options and in the comparison of impacts. Instead, the SDGs should be considered already from the outset in in the problem definition as well as in the design and comparison of policy options in IAs. As this is not yet fully implemented, it is recommended that the Regulatory Scrutiny Board systematically checks draft IA reports for compliance and publishes its findings. The study was carried out by Andreas Versmann and Sibout Nooteboom. The report can be downloaded from the WWF website or here on this site. The report can be downloaded from the WWF website or here on this site.