Last year, only $368 billion of a $14.6tn budget geared towards Covid-19 recovery measures across the world’s largest 50 countries took into account green recovery initiatives, according to a report launched yesterday, 10 Mar.

“Are we building back better?” by the Global Recovery Observatory, an initiative led by the Oxford University Economic Recovery Project (OUERP), and supported by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was launched during a panel talk where global leaders who discussed measures taken to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic that are favourable to the climate.

“With growing climate instability, rising inequality, and worsening global poverty (World Bank, 2021), it is crucial that governments build back better through a green and inclusive recovery,” read a part of the report.

UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen addressed the trillions in the budget for post-Covid-19 recovery.

“We are taking extraordinary amounts out of the pockets of the future — because these are borrowed monies — so let’s not do that with the engine of driving further environmental destruction,” she said.

Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which also supported the report, was on the panel and highlighted the crucial importance of including climate action in the budget for development after the pandemic. The role of climate action is “indispensable” in IMF’s work, she said.

“We cannot have microeconomic and financial stability without environmental and social sustainability and these are issues we need to learn fast how to integrate into economic policy,” Georgieva said.

Read the full article about green initiatives from IPS at Eco-Business.