Green recovery

A green recovery is a widely adopted name for a package of environmental, regulatory and fiscal reforms to recover prosperity after the covid-19 pandemic. There has been broad support from political parties, governments, activists and academia across the European Union,[1] the United Kingdom,[2] the United States,[3] and other countries to ensure that investment to lift countries out of economic recession is spent in a way that stops global warming from the use of coal, oil and gas, and to invest in clean transport, energy, buildings, and corporate or financial practices. These initiatives are supported by the United Nations and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.[4]

Background

Since the industrial revolution, the burning of coal, oil and gas has released millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, causing global warming. By 2020, the Earth's average temperature had risen by over 1 degree centigrade. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has calculated that continuing to burn coal, oil and gas reserves will heat the planet by between 0.8 degrees to 2.5 degrees, per 1000 gigatonnes of carbon burned,[5] and there are 2900 gigatonnes of carbon in proven reserves.[6] Burning a fraction of coal, oil and gas reserves will therefore lead to uncontrollable planetary heating, to widespread crop failures, and mass extinction. By the end of 2019, there had been increasing incidents of wild fires in Australia, the Amazon jungle in Brazil, and the Arctic forests in Russia,[7] as well as increased risks of hurricanes in the United States and Caribbean, and flooding. In 2015, most countries signed the Paris Agreement committing to limit global carbon emissions to prevent temperature rises by over 2 degrees, with an ambition to limit temperature rises to 1.5 degrees. In 2017, the United States president withdrew from the Paris Agreement. Activists and politicians, particularly younger people, have become increasingly vocal in demanding a "Green New Deal" in the US,[8] or a Green Industrial Revolution in the UK,[9] to end the use of fossil fuels in transport, energy generation, agriculture, buildings, and finance. In late 2019, the EU announced a European Green Deal, although this was said to fall far short of the goal of ending fossil fuels with a date of 2050, instead of today.[10]

In early 2020, the covid-19 pandemic caused countries to lock down their economies, in order to prevent infections and deaths from the spread of the virus. This required that many businesses suspend work, as people travelled less, shopped less, and stayed at home to work more. In most countries this caused some job losses, while in the United States, the United Kingdom, and other countries with weaker labour rights, there were acutely high rises in unemployment. The fall in economic activity also caused a fall in greenhouse gas emissions.[11] This encouraged campaign groups to call for, and politicians and governments to promise, a "green recovery". The broad goal has been to recover the economy and repair the damage to the climate and environment at the same time.

Green recovery proposals

Proposals for a "green recovery" vary widely according to the proponents.

In the UK, the government proposed "a green and resilient recovery", and announced announced "£3 billion" in spending for building renovations in July.[12] By contrast, in early July an academic and think tank group proposed a "Green Recovery Act" that would target nine fields of law reform, on transport, energy generation, agriculture, fossil fuels, local government, international agreement, finance and corporate governance, employment, and investment. This has the goal of establishing duties on all public bodies and regulators to end use of all coal, oil and gas "as fast as technologically practicable", with strict exceptions if there are not yet technical alternatives.[13]

In Germany, in June 2020 the government has pledged a green recovery with funding of €40 billion (£36 billion or US$45 billion) as part of a €130 billion recovery package.[14]

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See also

Notes
  1. 'Boosting the EU's green recovery: Commission invests €1 billion in innovative clean technology projects' (3 July 2020)
  2. 'Building back a green and resilient recovery' (8 July 2020) gov.uk. E McGaughey, M Lawrence and Common Wealth, 'The Green Recovery Act 2020', proposed UK law, and pdf
  3. e.g. Tom Steyer, 'A fair, green recovery for all Californians'. New York City, COVID-19 Green Recovery.
  4. M Holder, 'OECD and UN institutions demand green economic recovery from Covid-19' (5 June 2020) Business Green
  5. IPCC, Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report (2014) 62
  6. C McGlade and P Ekins, ‘The geographical distribution of fossil fuels unused when limiting global warming to 2oC’ (2015) 517 Nature 187, Figure 1
  7. F Pearce, ‘Long Shaped By Fire, Australia Enters a Perilous New Era’ (16 January 2020) YaleEnvironment360
  8. e.g. Bernie Sanders, Green New Deal.
  9. See also Green New Deal Group, A Green New Deal (July 2008)
  10. European Environmental Bureau, 'EU plans multi-billion euro ‘green recovery’ but falls short in crucial areas' (27 May 2020) eeb.org. Friends of the Earth Europe, 'EU Green Deal: fails to slam on the brakes' (11 December 2019)
  11. S Evans, 'Analysis: Coronavirus set to cause largest ever annual fall in CO2 emissions' (9 April 2020) Carbon Brief. F Harvey, 'Steep fall in emissions during coronavirus is no cause for celebration' (19 May 2020) Guardian
  12. F Harvey, 'Treasury's 'green recovery' not enough, say campaigners' (7 July 2020)Guardian
  13. E McGaughey, M Lawrence and Common Wealth, 'The Green Recovery Act 2020', proposed UK law on website, and pdf. See 'The Guardian view on a post-Covid-19 recovery: not much building back greener' (7 July 2020) Guardian, "Mr Johnson has talked of a “new deal” and he could take up the suggestion by the Common Wealth thinktank to legislate for a green recovery act to drive an economic revival with renewable energy at its core."
  14. JS Murray, 'Green Recovery: Germany unveils plans for €40bn climate spending surge' (4 June 2020) Business Green

References
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