The case for a green stimulus
As governments around the world are urged to ‘build back better’, a major focus has been to ensure that their economic recovery packages support environmental objectives. The language varies slightly – green, sustainable, resilient, ‘green and fair’, ‘green and just’, decarbonisation – but the core idea is consistent.
This is that governments should invest and create jobs in sectors and activities which align with long-term greenhouse gas emission goals (notably ‘net zero’ by 2050 or before), improve resilience to climate impacts, slow biodiversity loss, reduce pollution and increase the circularity of resource use.
Analysis of spending programmes of this sort – including those implemented after the financial crash in 2008 – show that green spending tends to have high job creation potential, which can often be geared towards economically disadvantaged people and areas. Many green projects can be delivered relatively quickly.
Calling for a ‘sustainable, resilient recovery’, the OECD urges governments to adopt economic policies which will reduce the likelihood of future shocks and increase society’s resilience to them.
In collaboration with the IMF, the International Energy Agency has set out a global ‘Sustainable Recovery Plan’ designed to boost economic growth, create millions of new jobs and put global greenhouse gas emissions into structural decline.
Leading economists including Nick Stern and Joseph Stiglitz have examined the potential economic benefits of a green recovery. Cataloguing more than 700 stimulus policies and surveying 231 experts from 53 countries, they found that green projects create more jobs, deliver higher short-term returns and long-term cost savings than traditional fiscal stimulus measures.
The World Resources Institute has drawn lessons from the green stimulus packages enacted in 2008-10 for the current Covid response.
The UK government's 'green industrial revolution' plan
Looking towards the critical UN climate conference COP26 in Glasgow in November, the UK government published its ‘10-point plan for a green industrial revolution’ at the end of 2020.
It pledges to mobilise £12 billion of government investment, and potentially three times as much from the private sector, to create and support up to 250,000 green jobs.
The ten areas of focus are offshore wind, low carbon hydrogen, nuclear power, zero emission vehicles, green public transport, ‘jet zero’ and green ships, greener buildings, carbon capture, usage and storage, protection of the natural environment and green finance and innovation.
While some aspects of the plan were welcomed by environmental groups, others criticised it for vagueness and for failing to clarify how the UK would achieve its statutory emissions reduction targets, including its commitment to ‘net zero’ emissions by 2050.
The Government’s green industrial revolution document set out its plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while creating jobs and supporting UK exports of green technologies and services.
Carbon Brief compiled responses to the plan from a variety of organisations and media outlets.
The government’s statutory advisory body the Climate Change Committee has published its recommendations for the UK’s ‘6th carbon budget’, showing how emissions could be reduced by 79% over 1990 levels by 2035.
The TUC ranked the green recovery plans of all G7 countries, finding that the UK came in 6th with the Treasury investing 6% of that pledged by the US and 13% of that promised by Italy on green jobs and recovery (£180 invested per person compared to £2,960 in the US and £1,390 in Italy). The TUC’s analysis estimates current UK green infrastructure investment potentially creating 44,000 green jobs over the next ten years. This could increase to 721,000 green jobs over the next ten years if the UK matched the ambition set by the US.
Green recovery proposals in the UK
The call for a green recovery has been widely supported in the UK, by businesses, environmental organisations, and think tanks on both left and right.
For some green recovery is a way of rebooting the existing economy. For others it offers a chance for more radical change in the objectives and outcomes of economic policy.
The CBI has published a ‘Green recovery roadmap’, outlining six priorities to ‘reignite business investment’ and create jobs. These include government investment in a battery manufacturing ‘gigafactory’, carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) and sustainable aviation fuels.
The UK Climate Coalition, an alliance of over 75 organisations, has produced a ten-point plan for a ‘green, healthy and fair recovery’, including policies for homes, transport, renewable energy, nature and global cooperation.
A report by Onward on the labour market challenge of the net zero transition shows the better pay and gender make-up of clean economy jobs compared to carbon intensive sectors. It proposes the funding 'net zero aligned' PhDs in engineering and establishing 'net zero academies' in regions with a high proportion of carbon intensive industries.
Green recovery plans across the world
Although the focus of most governments in the crisis so far has been keeping businesses and jobs alive, many have included environmental components in their stimulus and recovery plans.
This includes the EU, which has made its ‘Green Deal’ investment programme a centrepiece of its economic ambition and climate goals.
However analysis of plans published so far shows that the overall environmental impact of government plans in most countries is likely to be negative.
Carbon Brief has produced an interactive tracker of different countries ‘green recovery’ plans, detailing policies planned and implemented.
Vivid Economics have analysed 25 countries’ Covid-19 stimulus packages for their ‘greenness’. They find that, despite governments’ rhetoric, most will have a net negative environmental impact.
Green recovery in the devolved nations
Both the Scottish and Welsh governments have committed to green recoveries. In Northern Ireland a plan has been proposed by a group of environmental NGOs.
The Scottish Government has published a draft five-year infrastructure investment plan to stimulate job creation and enable ‘inclusive, net zero and sustainable growth’.
A group of environmental NGOs has published a 5-point plan for green recovery in Northern Ireland.
Proposals presented to the Welsh Government by its green recovery task force include natural climate solutions, circular economy policies and measures to ‘transform socio-economic systems’ such as food and transport.
Green recovery at city and local level
Many cities around the world have used the Covid crisis to prioritise walking and cycling and the provision of green space.
There is a growing global movement of cities committed to improving the quality of urban life through environmental improvement and decarbonisation, particularly of buildings and transport.
Many local authorities in the UK are looking to pursue a more sustainable form of economic development.
Led by the mayors of Los Angeles and Milan, major cities across the world have set out principles for a ‘green and just recovery’ and showcased what they are doing to deliver it.
Former CLES employee Jonty Leibowitz explores how UK regions and local authorities can develop green recovery plans centred on social, economic, and environmental justice.