Nairobi, March 10 : One year from the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, recovery spending has fallen short of nations’ commitments to build back more sustainably, an analysis, led by Oxford’s Economic Recovery Project and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), said on Wednesday.
It finds only 18.0 per cent of announced recovery spending can be considered ‘green.’ The report — Are we building back better? Evidence from 2020 and pathways for inclusive green recovery spending — calls for governments to invest more sustainably and tackle inequalities as they stimulate growth in the wake of the devastation wrought by the pandemic.
The most comprehensive analysis of Covid-related fiscal rescue and recovery efforts by 50 leading economies so far, the report reveals that only $368 bn of $14.6 tn Covid-induced spending (rescue and recovery) in 2020 was green.
UNEP’s Executive Director Inger Andersen said: “Humanity is facing a pandemic, an economic crisis and an ecological breakdown. We cannot afford to lose on any front. Governments have a unique chance to put their countries on sustainable trajectories that prioritise economic opportunity, poverty reduction and planetary health.” Brian O’Callaghan, lead researcher at the Oxford University Economic Recovery Project and the report’s author, said: “Despite positive steps towards a sustainable Covid-19 recovery from a few leading nations, the world has so far fallen short of matching aspirations to build back better.
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