Green pandemic recovery vital to tackle climate change, according to experts

A network of more than 30 UK-based universities, including the University of Leeds, the University of Hull and the University of York – has laid out recommendations surrounding the economic recovery from Covid-19.

Join our new coronavirus Facebook group for the latest confirmed news and advice as soon as we get it.For the study, the team including Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz and leading British climate economist Lord Stern, assessed the economic and climate impact of taking a green route out of the pandemic.

Ahead of a major United Nations climate change conference due to take place in Glasgow in 2021, researchers said green economy recovery measures for the coronavirus crisis will repair the global economy and put the world on track to tackle climate breakdown, but warned time is running out to implement the changes needed.

Professor Dan Parsons, director from the University of Hull's energy and environment institute said: “The focus of the UK is, quite rightly, currently on protecting vulnerable people from COVID-19 and saving lives.

“However, there will come a time when attention will shift to recovering the economy and getting businesses and industry back up and running.

"This in itself is vital in allowing people to return to work and support their families."

As the world emerges from the crisis of COVID-19, governments are expected to introduce stimulus and recovery packages to boost economic growth, including in the UK. These will have a significant impact on the UK’s future prosperity, including its potential to meet its own net-zero emissions target of 2050.

The network has proposed a number of green measures to be at the centre of the UK’s economic recovery from COVID-19. This includes conditional bailouts for struggling firms, dependent on improvements in climate-based criteria. These would be targeted at fossil fuel-intensive sectors and companies.

Other recommendations put forward are an incentive scheme for electric vehicle purchase, improved broadband connectivity across the UK, and improving carbon standards for new-build homes.

Countries already have commitments to cut emissions under the Paris agreement, and with the Cop26 universities summit postponed to early next year, researchers have called for the Government to take action and deliver a recovery package that would set the UK on a path to net zero emissions.

Professor Parsons said: “When this time comes, the UK must lead by example in rebuilding a new economy, with a clear focus on net-zero and a low-carbon future.

“We have an opportunity now, as industry has slowed and carbon emissions have been significantly reduced, to map out our future and – in doing so massively increasing our chances of becoming net-zero carbon by 2050.”

Professor Parsons said the COVID-19 pandemic is predicted to lead to a 6 per cent reduction in the global total of CO2 emissions in 2020.

This would be the largest ever annual fall, more than during any previous economic crisis or period of war.

However, to meet a trajectory for net-zero carbon by 2050, Professor Parsons highlighted “we need this to be over 7 per cent each and every year between now and 2050.”

He said: "The unprecedented events we are seeing around the world with Coronavirus must serve as a wake-up call for our global society.

"With some predictions indicating that carbon dioxide levels could increase rapidly after the virus has passed, as industry and economies looks to recover, attention must turn to how we make some of the temporary advances we are seeing over the past few months in reduced emissions, a permanent change in direction of increasing global emissions."

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