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 investments to lift countries out of economic recession are spent in a way that combats global warming, including the reduction of coal, oil, and gas use, as well as the investment in clean transport, renewable energy, eco-friendly buildings, and sustainable 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°C since pre-industrial levels. 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 burning carbon[5] and there are 2900 gigatonnes of carbon in proven reserves.[6] Burning a fraction of the coal, oil, and gas reserves will therefore lead to uncontrollable planetary heating, resulting in widespread crop failures, and the 6th mass extinction event. By the end of 2019, there had been increasing incidents of wild fires in Australia, the Amazon rainforest 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, the vast majority of 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. 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 fuel use in the bloc by 2050.[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 many businesses to 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".

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 £3 billion in funding 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 June 2020, the German government pledged a green recovery with funding of €40 billion (£36 billion or US$45 billion) as part of a €130 billion recovery package.[14]

In July 2020 the European Council agreed to a massive recovery fund of €750 billion, branded Next Generation EU (NGEU), to support member states hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. An overall climate target of 30% will apply to the total amount of expenditure from the NGEU in compliance with the Paris climate agreement.[15]

One proposal for a green recovery of the global economic system is funding nuclear energy. New nuclear technology is a low carbon energy source that is also clean, reliable, affordable, and safe.[16] Small modular reactors are growing in popularity as the preferred type of nuclear technology to be implemented into communities. Small modular reactors are a type of nuclear fission reactor that is smaller, more cost-effective, and more modern than older reactors. This allows the reactor to be more easily placed into already developed areas while providing a stable and consistent type of sustainable energy.[17]

Economics
See also: Economics of climate change mitigation

The broad goal has been to recover the economy and repair the damage to the climate and environment at the same time.

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, ipcc.ch, 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 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
  15. Special meeting of the European Council, 17-21 July 2020, paragraphs A21, 18 Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  16. "16 Ways The Pandemic Recovery Could Be Green". www.wbur.org. Retrieved 2021-01-22.
  17. "Advanced Small Modular Reactors (SMRs)". Energy.gov. Retrieved 2021-01-22.

References
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