Nature-Based Solutions Essential for Sustainable Recovery

On December 8, 2020, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced a new USD 708 billion economic stimulus package. The package will comprise about USD 384.5 billion in direct fiscal spending and initiatives aiming at reducing carbon emissions and fostering digital innovation. For example, USD 19.2 billion is earmarked for a fund to promote carbon neutrality...Read more »

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) approved a USD 23.1 million grant towards strengthening the climate resilience of Mongolian herder communities. The project aims to enhance climate-informed natural resources management and sustainable livestock practices, building on traditional cooperative approaches among herders. It will also introduce innovative technologies for the traceability of sustainably sourced livestock products and...Read more »

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has announced the country will commit to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. During a speech to parliament on October 28, he reaffirmed plans for a Green New Deal and pledged to replace coal power generation with renewable energy. As part of the USD 37 billion Green New Deal, South Korea...Read more »

As of October 26, 2020, the European Union (EU) has allotted PHP 3.76 billion in grant funding to the Philippines under the Access to Sustainable Energy Programme. This grant will support sustainable recovery efforts in the Philippines, particularly within the energy sector. During a webinar held on October 22, 2020, the head of the EU...Read more »

On October 22, 2020, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Regional Office for West Asia and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Iraq. The goal of the MoU is to spur progress toward the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, while focusing efforts on achieving environmental SDGs. One specific goal...Read more »

A World Resources Institute article posted on October 19, 2020, urges that a transition to renewable energy sources to address Southeast Asia’s energy demand will be the most sustainable path to post-pandemic recovery in the region. Southeast Asia’s strong reliance on fossil fuels has exacerbated the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and has contributed...Read more »

On September 28, the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance (the Lab) launched eight innovative finance solutions designed to channel private resources to climate action in developing economies. The instruments pay attention to supporting the most vulnerable populations during and after the pandemic while building long-term resilience. The finance instruments will support nature-based solutions as well...Read more »

In August 2020, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) published a brochure informing countries about sustainable recovery opportunities. Apart from presenting the central reasons for a green recovery, the document, called A Pathway to a Low-Carbon and Resilient Future, also entails three items that could help decision-makers design such programs: It lists possible low-carbon and resilience-enhancing...Read more »

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has restructured its financing plan for Bangladesh to help the country recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Country Operations Business Plan (COBP) for 2021 to 2023, which was published in August, includes USD 5.28 billion in loans. A major part of the funds (USD 2.39 billion) will be disbursed in...Read more »

Singapore President Halimah Yacob revealed plans for the country’s green recovery during the opening of the nation’s 14th Parliament on August 24, 2020. She announced major efforts to foster sustainable growth while improving social safety nets and education. The government plans to “push for green financing and sustainable infrastructure development across the region, to ride...Read more »

Bloomberg Green reported on August 24, 2020, that Bangladesh is expecting the World Bank to approve USD 2 billion in loans to support its ambitious climate adaptation plan, with the first installment planned for the beginning of next year. The funds would be used to implement the Delta Plan 100, which aims to minimize damages...Read more »

According to an article published by Jakarta Post on August 21, 2020, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has pledged to double its loan commitments to Indonesia in order to support the country’s economic recovery. In previous years, Indonesia received between USD 1 billion and USD 2 billion annually, mainly for energy-related infrastructure projects. ADB Country...Read more »

ING published a report on August 11, 2020, about national recovery and stimulus spending in the Asia-Pacific region. The analysis highlights that most countries in the region, with the exception of New Zealand and Singapore, have hardly included any green stimulus measures in their economic recovery packages. Notably, the report presents data that demonstrate that...Read more »

The Rocky Mountain Institute, RMI India and NITI Aayog have just released a report on how a green recovery of India’s energy sector could be realized. The report identifies opportunities for the country to boost the energy transition, building a clean, resilient, and low-cost energy future for India. It also discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic...Read more »

In this article, Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and Dona Bertarelli, UNCTAD’s new Special Adviser for the Blue Economy, call for a sustainable blue economic recovery and describe what that could look like. The health of the oceans is in steep decline. A natural resource so crucial...Read more »

On July 22, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced a partnership with the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to assist members hard hit by COVID-19. ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa and GCF Executive Director Yannick Glemarec met to identify opportunities to help ADB members confronting the pandemic crisis achieve low-carbon and climate-resilient recoveries. They agreed to build...Read more »

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP), alongside several partners in the Sustainable Infrastructure Partnership (SIP), developed a set of ten principles for post-COVID-19 recovery focusing on investing in sustainable and resilient infrastructure. The ‘Principles for Recovery’ provide a framework for decision making on infrastructure spending for post-COVID-19 recovery and stimulus packages. The Principles call for decisions...Read more »

The South Korean Government announced a Green New Deal on July 14, 2020, worth approximately KRW 114 trillion (USD 94.5 billion), which is meant to be invested over the course of the next years to help the country’s economy to recover from the COVID-19-related recession. The foreseen government spending is targeted at creating 1.9 million...Read more »

On July 15, the World Economic Forum released a new report on the need to address the future of nature, in addition to climate change, in a post-COVID-19 recovery. The report highlights that a business-as-usual approach has no future. In addition to fighting climate change, three systems need to undergo a fundamental transformation to address...Read more »

Several of the 126 countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) are calling for debt relief, including for infrastructure projects that have been hit by negative economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. A range of BRI projects, such as coal-fired power plants, hydropower plants, and oil palm plantations, has been criticized for their...Read more »

On June 8, 2020, the World Trade Organization Secretariat published a report on trade-related developments in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic in least-developed countries (LDCs). The economies of LDCs have been hit extra hard during this pandemic, as many rely on export-sensitive sectors that came to a near standstill (tourism, textiles, etc.), as well as...Read more »

On June 2, 2020, Pakistan Today reported on the World Bank’s USD 188 million in funding for the Government of Pakistan for disaster risk reduction and the restoration of the natural environment. This will strengthen Pakistan’s green economic stimulus recovery package.

South Korea’s ambition to implement a Green New Deal was already affirmed after the National Assembly elections mid-April. This Green Deal will be realized as a core strategy during the COVID-19 recovery as reported on May 29, 2020. It entails, among others, public investments into expanding renewable energy generation and greening the transport sector in...Read more »

The Italian government unveiled the outline of the national COVID-19 recovery plan, which will allocate a total of EUR 196 billion to six key areas. The plan includes the following investments: EUR 74.3 billion is earmarked for a green revolution and ecologic transition.EUR 48.7 billion will go toward digitalization and innovation.EUR 27.7 billion will be...Read more »

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres highlighted the urgency of a green recovery in a speech on December 2, 2020. In his address at Columbia University in New York, he painted a bleak picture of the state of the planet, pointing to the concerning results of the provisional State of the Global Climate report by the...Read more »

On November 17, 2020, the United Kingdom government unveiled its 10-point green recovery plan. The GBP 12 billion stimulus package will benefit the green economy across the country, for instance going toward carbon capture, hydrogen, nuclear, electric vehicles, and renewable energy. Prime Minister Boris Johnson estimates that the green recovery plan will create 250,000 new...Read more »

On November 5, 2020, an England-wide nature restoration initiative was launched. It aims to tackle biodiversity loss and climate change, and to help people reconnect with the natural world. Led by Natural England, the Nature Recovery Network (NRN) Delivery Partnership brings together representatives from over 600 organizations, such as RSPB, Wildlife and Countryside Link, and...Read more »

In early October, the Spanish President Pedro Sánchez presented plans to invest EUR 72 billion in European funds over the next three years, aiming to create 800,000 jobs. The Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan addresses four key areas for a COVID-19 recovery: ecological transition, digitalization, gender equality, and social cohesion. The Spanish government expects the...Read more »

On October 19, the We Mean Business Coalition published a report illustrating that green recovery plans boost income, employment and GDP better than traditional stimulus measures. It therefore recommends governments to reject return-to-normal stimulus packages, e.g. with a focus on VAT reductions and increasing household spending, in favour of targeted support for green technologies and...Read more »

In September 2020, the World Bank published a new paper about private finance for nature. The detailed piece, which is available on the Green Finance Platform, argues that private finance can and must be harnessed to better protect and manage biodiversity and ecosystem services around the world. The authors underline that governments and regulators, supported...Read more »

Researchers from the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University have developed a way to measure the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The IMF COVID-19 Recovery Index aims to quantify the extent to which the organization recommends (or conditions) borrowing countries to increase their efforts to combat the pandemic, protect vulnerable...Read more »

A new McKinsey report highlights the business case for stepping up global investments in natural capital. The authors illustrate the critical need for expanding nature conservation, analyzing global risks to natural capital, and the crucial value of nature for human activities. To reduce the loss of natural capital around the world, scientists and policy-makers demand...Read more »

Political leaders from around the world have launched the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature, committing to reversing biodiversity loss by 2030. Supported by more than 70 countries and several non-state actors, the pledge is meant to send a united signal to step up global ambition for biodiversity, nature, climate, and people. The Leaders’ Pledge for Nature...Read more »

In an article published in September 2020, authors from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) make the case for scaling up green recovery efforts worldwide. The article underlines that well-designed economic stimulus packages can create much-needed jobs and lower emissions while also transforming the countries for leadership in the green economy over the longer term. The...Read more »

In September 2020, The Guardian reported that a majority of people across Britain supports an ambitious transformation of the United Kingdom into a greener, fairer, and more equal society. The assessment is based on an extensive inquiries by a cross-party group of MPs, which involved over 55,000 people through representative polls, workshops, and telephone conversations....Read more »

The Task Force for a Resilient Recovery has released its final report, recommending CAD 55.4 billion in green recovery investments to support long-term jobs and economic growth in Canada. The Task Force encourages Canada’s leaders to learn from the missed opportunities after the 2008/09 financial crisis when countries invested in recovery measures that resulted in a historic...Read more »

The British government has launched its GBP 40 million Green Recovery Challenge Fund, supporting up to 5,000 jobs in areas such as tree planting and nature conservation.  Environmental groups can now apply for grants worth GBP 50,000 to GBP 5 million. The fund is aimed at labour-intensive projects that deliver nature-based solutions to climate change...Read more »

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published a new policy brief about opportunities for a green, inclusive COVID-19 recovery. The document, called Making the Green Recovery Work for Jobs, Income and Growth, includes a review of announced recovery and stimulus policies in OECD and Key Partner countries. On the one hand, OECD governments...Read more »

The Smart Prosperity Institute has published an article outlining opportunities for a green and inclusive COVID-19 recovery in Canada. The authors underline that some groups within society, especially women, younger workers, persons of colour, and persons with disabilities, have been hit disproportionately hard by the recession. The article, therefore, calls on the government to carefully...Read more »

The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) published a paper about the use of debt swaps to address the debt, climate, and biodiversity crises. Published in September 2020, the paper illustrates how governments could address this triple crisis in their COVID-19 recovery packages using debt for climate and nature program swaps. According to the...Read more »

The UN Economic Commission for Africa and the Government of Ethiopia signed a Memorandum of Understanding on August 13, 2020, kicking off a USD 3.6 million project on nature-based solutions for water resources infrastructure and community resilience in Ethiopia. The project is part of the Ethiopian Government’s Green Legacy initiative and serves as the official...Read more »

On August 27, 2020, partners of the U.K. Ignition project launched the report Nature-Based Solutions to the Climate Emergency: The Benefits to Business and Society. The project’s aim is to develop innovative financing solutions for investments in Greater Manchester’s natural environment, helping the city to adapt to the impacts of climate change. The report presents...Read more »

Colombia’s president Ivan Duque sees his country on track to economic recovery. Participating in a virtual conference on August 20, 2020, he discussed the key role of the government’s stimulus and recovery plan, called Compromiso por el Futuro de Colombia. It includes investments over COP 100 billion (about EUR 22 million) and the creation of 1...Read more »

On August 26, 2020, The Guardian reported the creation of a new joint venture that seeks to invest billions in natural capital around the world. HSBC Global Asset Management and Pollination, a climate advisory and investment firm, are forming the world’s largest investment firm dedicated to environmentally friendly projects beyond renewable energy. The plan is...Read more »

On August 13, 2020, Climate Home News reported on an international study about green recovery opportunities in Brazil. The study by the New Climate Economy and World Resources Institute, in partnership with former finance ministers and World Bank executives, finds that the government could rebuild the economy faster after the pandemic by making low-carbon growth...Read more »

On August 14, 2020, Reuters reported on Nairobi’s increased efforts to expand green infrastructure. The article highlights how such investments address challenges posed by the pandemic and the climate crisis. The Kenyan capital is improving the protection and quality of green spaces, especially along the Nairobi River, while supporting people in need. In March, the...Read more »

On August 3, 2020, the European Investment Bank (EIB) announced the financing of nearly 40 projects in Barcelona that serve multiple objectives for the city. On the one hand, the projects contribute to the climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts of the city; on the other hand, they create jobs and enhance social inclusion. Therefore,...Read more »

On July 29, 2020, the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) published the results of a study that highlights the enormous job creation potential associated with a transition to a net-zero carbon economy in Latin America and the Caribbean. Even though such a transition would terminate around 7.5 million jobs in...Read more »

On July 17, 2020, West Berkshire Council issued the U.K.’s first local government green bond using the crowd investment platform Abundance. This innovative financing solution is called Community Municipal Investment and targets local citizens to become investors for green projects in their own municipalities. Within a week, GBP 300,000 of the GBP 1 million target...Read more »

The Government of New Zealand earmarked a NZ$ 3 billion portion from the country´s COVID Response and Recovery Fund to invest in infrastructure plans. The Cabinet announced on June 30th 2020, how the Infrastructure Fund will be allocated across regions and sectors with the target to create more than 20,000 jobs and unlock additional investments....Read more »

On June 4, 2020, on the evening before World Environment Day, the International Union for Conversation of Nature (IUCN) explained in this blog why protecting our natural environment is a safer and cheaper option than waiting for the next crisis to hit. 

The Inter-American Development Bank supports Guatemala under its REDD+ framework to scale its good practices on sustainable forest management and agriculture. The management of the cardamom value chain in Guatemala is an example of how to make agriculture more resilient in a post-COVID-19 recovery. It is also exemplary in its positive social impact, especially by...Read more »