What policies for greening the crisis response and economic recovery?

Abstract

Unclassified OECD ENVIRONMENT WORKING PAPERS OECD Working Papers should not be reported as representing the official views of the OECD or of its member countries. The opinions expressed and arguments employed are those of the author(s). Working Papers describe preliminary results or research in progress by the author(s) and are published to stimulate discussion on a broad range of issues on which the OECD works. This series is designed to make available to a wider readership selected studies on environmental issues prepared for use within the OECD. Authorship is usually collective, but principal author(s) are named. The papers are generally available only in their original language-English or French-with a summary in the other language. Comments on Working Papers are welcomed, and may be sent to: OECD Environment Directorate 2 rue André-Pascal,

Rapid Scoping Review on the Topic of Ensuring Social Protection and Basic Services to Inform the United Nations Framework for the Immediate Socioeconomic Response to COVID-19

“…This decision was made because social protection programs in nonshock times leverage existing infrastructure and social networks to build resiliency. 5 In times of shock, however, not only are the immediate needs to be addressed through social protection measures different than in times of stability, but the networks that would normally be relied upon to deliver social protection measures have very often been disrupted 6 and therefore require different approaches for implementation.…”

“…9 Thus, some researchers have begun to call upon decision makers to not lose sight of environmental considerations when considering the next steps in the pandemic response and recovery. 6 While we wait for the literature specific to the COVID-19 pandemic to catch up, we can look for lessons from a previous shock event-the 2007-2008 global financial crisis-to inform recommendations for "greening the COVID-19 recovery." 6(p6) Such efforts may find a toehold by aligning with a discourse on healthy public policy; however, this work should proceed with caution because many approaches for linking environmental concerns and population health that would have made sense a year ago may not be appropriate today.…”

“…An example of this can be seen with investing in mass transit to reduce pollution and increase affordable transportation; for the time being, this is out of touch with public health concerns, which are instead favoring investments in "soft mobility" such as walking and bike riding. 6 Given the current uncertainty, those with expertise in this area caution that as recovery plans are developed, it may very well be that the best we can hope for is a commitment to "do no harm," thereby ensuring that we hold the line on environmental standards to not lose ground on progress made to date. 6,18 This stance should also include oversight to ensure that any programs or standards that were loosened in the interest of immediate COVID-19 responses are fully reinstated as soon as it is safe to do so.…”

“…6 Given the current uncertainty, those with expertise in this area caution that as recovery plans are developed, it may very well be that the best we can hope for is a commitment to "do no harm," thereby ensuring that we hold the line on environmental standards to not lose ground on progress made to date. 6,18 This stance should also include oversight to ensure that any programs or standards that were loosened in the interest of immediate COVID-19 responses are fully reinstated as soon as it is safe to do so. 6…”

Harnessing international climate governance to drive a sustainable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic

“…There is an on-going debate across academia, national governments and international institutions on how to design sustainable recovery packages (e.g. Hepburn et al, 2020;OECD, 2020). The main theme in the growing literature is to focus recovery packages on low-emission investments and away from high-emission infrastructure such as fossil fuel power plants.…”