Green recovery gains momentum as world confronts multiple crises

By David Suzuki with contributions from Senior Editor and Writer Ian Hanington - www.davidsuzuki.org

As with the 2008-09 financial crisis, CO2 emissions have dropped during the pandemic. But the 2009 

economic stimulus and recovery ignited a renewed spike in emissions. The measures revived struggling 

economies and it wasn’t long before industrial interests were again fuelling engines of habitat destruction, 

pollution, climate disruption and other environmental devastation.

COVID-19 is revealing that recovery’s unstable foundation. As governments worldwide develop plans 

to recover from this pandemic’s impacts, we have to ensure it’s a lasting recovery that puts us on track 

to confront current and future threats, including the climate and biodiversity crises.

An International Institute for Sustainable Development study, conducted at the request of leading Canadian

 environmental organizations including the David Suzuki Foundation, argues any corporate bailouts and 

stimulus spending should come with “green strings” attached. Measures to stimulate the economy 

shouldn’t make the climate crisis worse and should aim for a sustainable, equitable, resilient future for all.

As governments worldwide develop plans to recover from this pandemic’s impacts, we have to ensure it’s a lasting 

recovery that puts us on track to confront current and future threats, including the climate and biodiversity crises. 

 (Photo: Friends of the Earth Scotland via Flickr)

As economists and others worldwide have been saying, our recovery from this pandemic will be stronger 

if we correct course away from activities that cause climate disruption, biodiversity loss, environmental 

devastation and increasing disease spread — and exacerbate inequality.

Former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor Mark Carney says the world can’t afford to miss 

an opportunity as it did after the 2008 financial crisis. “You can’t wish away the systemic risk,” he said. 

“In the end, a small investment up front can save a tremendous cost down the road.”

Research shows environmentally targeted stimulus measures offer as many or more employment and 

economic benefits as neutral or harmful measures. Studies of U.S. stimulus policies during the 2008-09 

global financial crisis found green policies performed well, especially compared to fossil fuel 

infrastructure funding.

A survey of 230 leading economists representing 53 countries, published in the Oxford Review of 

Economic Policy, found “green stimulus measures” were “among the most beneficial for the economy, 

as well as having strong potential to cut emissions,” and “could help decouple emissions from growth, 

avoid stranded assets — and stranded jobs — and redirect the global economy towards a more 

prosperous net-zero emissions pathway.”

The IISD study calls on Canada to adopt a range of measures, from making funding for industry 

conditional on measurable plans to reduce emissions to net-zero by 2050, to ensuring support goes to 

workers and not executive perks, buybacks and dividends.

Study co-author Aaron Cosbey said government recovery plans will determine our environmental 

footprint for decades. “We’ll end up spending hundreds of billions of dollars on relief and recovery — 

an unprecedented investment by Canadian taxpayers. It’s the government’s right and duty to attach 

conditions to that spending, making sure it drives us toward the future we all want: a green, prosperous 

Canada.”

The European Union is already taking up the challenge, forming a “green recovery alliance,” initiated in 

response to calls from European environment ministers “for the European Green Deal to be centralised 

in the EU’s post-pandemic recovery plan.”

“We are choosing to accelerate the ecological transition when the time comes to reinvest in the economy,” 

said European Parliament environment committee chair Pascal Canfin. “COVID-19 has not made the 

climate crisis go away.”

Amsterdam is the first city to replace the antiquated economic growth model with “doughnut economics” 

as a guide for public policy decisions. Oxford University economist Kate Raworth developed the model, 

based on the idea that an economy should meet everyone’s core needs within the means of the planet.

Many are feeling the effects of the pandemic — isolation, job loss, economic upheaval, illness, death — 

and the desire is to quickly return to “normal.” But “normal” isn’t good enough, as we learned in 2009. 

To ensure our well-being and survival, we must build back better. We have the knowledge, resources 

and research to do it. All we need now is political will.