If ‘the new normal’ was one of 2020’s most ubiquitous phrases, then ‘Recover Better’ may be just the clarion call the world needs when it envisages a post-COVID world.
If 2020 was a year of restriction, than 2021 may be a year of opportunity; opportunity to ‘Recover Better’ and shape a new post-COVID world in a sustainable way. So what does a world where we recover better look like, and how does it tie into the Paris Agreement goals?
At a virtual meeting of the annual Petersberg Climate Dialogue last Spring, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa pointed out that we have a “rare and short window of opportunity to rebuild our world for the better”, and asked all governments to prepare enhanced climate plans (knows as Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs) and strategies to reach net zero emissions by 2050. She added that it is only “by ensuring this [rebuilding] money is directed at clean, green, sustainable and resilient investments, we can make incredible progress in the fight against climate change.”
This was echoed by the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, who last year outlined six climate-positive steps countries should take when emerging from the pandemic. These include: investing in green jobs; not bailing out polluting industries unless they commit to the Paris Agreement; Ending fossil-fuel subsidies; Ensuring climate risks and opportunities are taken into account in all financial and policy decisions; Working together to recover better; and lastly, leaving no one behind in order to ensure that a transition to a carbon-neutral economy is fair and inclusive.
He’s not alone in this thinking. Major international bodies such as the European Union, the African Union, the International Monetary Fund, the International Renewable Energy Agency, as well as international investment companies, economists and politicians, are calling for a climate-friendly response to the pandemic.
As Inger Anderson, the Executive Director of the UN’s Environment Programme (UNEP), said last December: “[a truly green recovery] can take a huge slice out of greenhouse gas emissions and slow climate change.”
A climate-resilient recovery will not only benefit the Paris Agreement goals, but it will also boost progress within many other, if not all, of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These goals were adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. All 17 of the goals are ‘integrated’, in that what happens in one area will have an impact on outcomes in other areas. And indeed, we can see that by building back in a more sustainable way, we will make great strides towards each of the SDGs.
As one of the UNFCCC High-Level Climate Champions, Nigel Topping wrote last year, “How leaders decide to reactivate the economy in response will either amplify global and national threats or mitigate them. The stimulus measures being signed off by governments are some of the biggest in history.”
The good news is that even before the pandemic, we saw increased awareness of the work needed to reach the Paris Agreement targets. For example, UNEP’s Emissions Gap Report 2020 revealed that “126 countries responsible for 51% of global greenhouse gas emissions have adopted, announced, or are considering a net zero pledge.
So, while COVID-19 has had a huge impact on the planet, the opportunities we now have are equally big. As Topping writes: “We can rebuild and power our economy with cleaner energy, taking advantage of zero interest rates to scale up zero carbon power. Big investment to unleash the deployment of clean technologies – such as renewables, hydrogen, batteries and carbon capture – can simultaneously accelerate healthier forms of energy, generating 65 million new jobs and $26 trillion in financial benefits worldwide by 2030.”
There has been momentum in other areas too; witness The Investor Agenda, which represents 1,200 international investment companies (who manage $35 trillion in assets), calling for a sustainable recovery from COVID-19. They make the point that “an accelerated transition to a net zero emissions economy in line with the Paris Agreement is also critical to building greater resilience that it will enhance the ability of our communities and economies to absorb both acute and systemic shocks.”
A survey last May of 200 economists in central banks, finance ministries and academia from around the world saw unanimous agreement that the smartest move from an economic perspective is to embrace a ‘green’ recovery post-COVID, as it will create more jobs in the short term and more sustainable growth in the long term.
If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it is that we ignore nature at our peril. We need to understand that how we live in the world has long-term, often unforeseen effects, and so we all need to move towards the Paris Agreement goals together. If we make the recovery from the pandemic the solution to the climate crisis, and if enough governments show real leadership on this, we can move into a post-COVID world with renewed hope.