Guest blog: Greta’s ‘blah blah blah’ is spot on Myth of a global green COVID recovery laid bare by policy tracker
Analysis of
32 countries, and around US$11.1 trillion of economic support shows that only a
small handful of rich countries are investing in a green economy as they emerge
from the pandemic.
The research undertaken by the Green Economy Coalition
confirms that Greta Thunberg's accusations that
politicians are making empty promises to ‘build back better’ or kick start a
‘green economy’ in the wake of COVID-19 are well founded.
Sweden, France and now Spain are leading the race for a
green recovery. Their recovery plans dedicate at least 40% towards low carbon
infrastructure, applying environmental conditions to carbon-heavy industry
bailouts and creating a green jobs programme for the long-term unemployed.
But even these leaders are preoccupied with one-off
low-carbon projects and are shying away from the urgent structural changes
needed to protect and restore nature at scale - including eliminating harmful
subsidies and embedding biodiversity in economic plans, says the Green Economy
Coalition.
Other high income countries such as Australia and Japan
are falling well behind their economic peers on green recovery. Australia is
still set on fossil fuel investment and Japan has next to no green recovery
plans.
Middle and lower income countries by contrast are
struggling to even begin greening their recoveries following mounting debt post
COVID. Some of the most biodiverse hotspots in the world including Peru,
Indonesia, Botswana, Malaysia and Brazil have little or no mention of nature in
their recovery agendas.
“The global green recovery is
failing to respond to the code red that people and nature are facing. The
political class of 2021 are throwing us out of the COVID-19 frying pan and into
the climate fire,” says Oliver
Greenfield, Convenor of the Green Economy Coalition.
“Green recovery plans by a
handful of countries aren’t going to be enough. We need to prioritise green
economic policies across the board and when it comes to low income countries
they will need financial support to do that. Justice demands that those who
have done least to cause the climate crisis are given the help they need to
play a part in the solution,” said
Andrew Norton, Director of the International Institute for Environment and
Development, and co-founder of the Green Economy Coalition.
"Assessing the quality of
governmental policies and strategies is essential to know if we are on or
off-tracks in the critical journey towards green and inclusive progress. So far
the results are rather disappointing and much more ambition and action is
needed to face on-time the inter-related climate, biodiversity and social
emergencies," said Jeremie
Fosse, President of Eco-Union and member of the Green Economy Coalition.
The Green Economy Coalition urges multilateral agencies
and government donors to redouble financial support to low income and
debt-stressed countries, prioritising those that are doing credible green
recovery planning.
They also stress that all countries put investment in
biodiversity and natural capital into their recovery plans by targeting at
least 30% of spending on nature-positive investment going forward.
Finally, the window for a structural green recovery is
open, and all nations should present transformative green investment packages
at COP26 to ensure the credibility of their revised nationally determined
contributions (NDCs). The Green Economy Tracker offers an integrated policy
roadmap on how to do so.
Data comes from the Green Economy Tracker, a tool used to
benchmark how countries are transitioning towards greener, fairer economic
systems, assessing progress and highlighting “best in class” policies that are
already driving change towards a safer future. The 12 new countries analysed
include Germany, Serbia, South Korea, USA, Ethiopia, Australia, Spain, Italy,
Nigeria, Turkey, Indonesia and Japan. The tracker now looks at 32 countries in
total, with analysis of 9 more countries coming soon. As well as green
recovery, policies also focus on governance, nature, finance, people and
different economic sectors.
Countries which scored highly in the green recovery
showed cross-cutting and long term transformational policies, significant
levels of green investment and green conditionality, plus attention to carbon,
natural capital investment and inclusivity, green jobs and policies that
support a just transition.
ENDS
For more information please contact Emily Benson,
Director of Engagement emily.benson@greeneconomycoalition.org
The Green Economy Coalition is
a global alliance of NGOs, researchers, institutions and think tanks that
supports social dialogue, policy research and communications to accelerate the
transition to green and fair economies.
The Green Economy Tracker is
a publicly available online tool that draws on expert insight to assess
countries’ progress on 20 key policies in five key areas, plus a unique policy
to track recovery from the COVID pandemic. It rates the ambition of 32 high,
middle and low-income countries, and the GEC plans to update it regularly and
add further countries until it achieves full global coverage.
The Nature for Life Hub is
co-hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Convention on Biological Diversity
(CBD). It runs from the 4-6th October.
.jpg)
Comments
Post a Comment