Covid-19
COVID-19 has plunged the global economy into crisis. Green fiscal policies (GFP) can play a key role in shaping the recovery. As governments are devising green fiscal stimulus policies, they must look to maximize short-term growth and employment effects, but they have also a lever in hand to steer economies to a green and fair transition. The collapse of the oil price has created a window of opportunity for carbon taxes and fossil fuel subsidy reform to mobilise revenue and drive low-carbon development. Green budgeting can rationalise inefficient expenditures and align spending with sustainability. In developing countries with limited fiscal space, GFP can be part of a sustainable solution.
News
Ending subsidies that harm nature could create millions of green jobs, WWF says
Moving government support for environmentally damaging industries into green sectors like recycling and sustainable forest management could boost employment, report finds.
Green taxation can help us recover from the Covid-19 crisis. Here’s how
Raising taxes during an economic downturn might seem counterintuitive but it could be the key to Covid-19 recovery. The secret lies in which taxes to raise: when it comes to impacts on the economy, jobs, and the environment, not all taxes are created equal.
China’s post-pandemic economic stimulus spending on green projects shows there is room for improvement: Greenpeace
Only 15 per cent of China’s newly added post-Covid-19 national and municipal bonds went to green, sustainable, or low-carbon projects, says Greenpeace. China approved a fiscal stimulus package of 6.35 trillion yuan (US$984 billion) in May last year to help the country’s economic recovery after the pandemic.
Reports
Greening the Recovery (IMF)
Fiscal policy across the globe is rightly focused on fighting the COVID-19-induced economic crisis. But the climate change crisis remains, as does the need for
Whose Green Recovery? Why poorer countries must not be left behind by richer countries’ recovery plans (ACT Alliance)
Poor countries could turn to fossil fuels as ‘green recovery’ leaves them behind says new report. A new report from development charity Christian Aid has
Equity, Climate Justice, and Fossil Fuel Extraction: Principles for a Managed Phase Out (OilChange)
As COVID-19 and other factors force an unmanaged decline of oil and gas, a new peer-reviewed study by Greg Muttitt and Sivan Kartha outlines how
Policy Briefs
From containment to recovery: Environmental responses to the COVID-19 pandemic (OECD)
The focus of this brief is on the immediate steps that governments can take to ensure that emergency measures implemented to tackle the Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Special Series on Fiscal Policies to Respond to COVID-19 – Fiscal Policy Responses to the Sharp Decline in Oil Prices (IMF)
Oil prices have declined sharply as a result of both global demand contraction and supply increase. The urgent priority for oil exporters is to deploy
Special Series on Fiscal Policies to Respond to COVID-19 – Greening the Recovery (IMF)
Fiscal policy across the globe is rightly focused on fighting the COVID-19-induced economic crisis. But the climate change crisis remains, as does the need for
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