The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated the world and put many economies into freefall. As countries went into lockdown to slow the spread of the virus, consumers spent less and many people lost their job. In the United States, unemployment rose to over 15% at its peak in June, and continues to remain above 8%. Many countries around the world are experiencing similar trends in economic strain and job loss. In order to improve from this global recession, comprehensive economic recovery plans are being developed from the local to the international level.
Recovering from this crisis must, however, be done while working to combat another crisis that was present long-before COVID-19: the Climate Crisis. So far, the share of stimulus spending that has gone to green-related priorities is 1% in the US, 2% in China, and 20% in the EU (a comprehensive breakdown of recovery spending can be found at https://www.energypolicytracker.org). The webinar that I attended focused on tackling that issue, specifically tackling the question: How can economic recovery from COVID-19 work to combat climate change and other social issues plaguing the world? The webinar was co-moderated by Jason Bourdoff and Johnathan Elkind from the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. Panelists included: Eric Garcetti – Mayor of Los Angeles and Chair of C40 cities group; Damilola Ogunbiyi – CEO and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All and Co-Chair of UN-Energy; Mauricio Cardenas – Visiting research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy and former minister of energy and finance in Columbia; and Kadri Simson – EU commissioner for energy. The webinar focused on the ways in which the COVID-19 recovery can be a green recovery, and these plans can be organized into 3 themes that I will highlight in more depth: 1) The role of cities in green recovery, 2) the need for an inclusive clean energy transition and 3) ensuring a “just transition” to clean energy.
Role of Cities
In the Duke UNFCCC Practicum Course, much of the conversation has been focused on the multi-national approach to combating climate change through the UNFCCC and implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement. Mayor Garcetti offered a counter-approach to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement by increasing the role of cities. As he stated, “It is local communities where we live as human beings” and therefore it is in cities where these climate goals and policies will be implemented. Mayor Garcetti highlighted the fact that cities are much more “nimble” than slower, hyper-partisan national governments, and serve as great “laboratories of experimentation” for climate policies. Additionally, it is within cities that waste water reduction, clean public transportation, and retrofitting of buildings are implemented.
Mayor Garcetti and others on the panel offered plans for increasing the role of cities in the COVID-19 green recovery. Mayor Garcetti spoke about the role of C40, the Cities Climate Leadership Group–a group of 96 cities around the world that represents one twelfth of the world’s population and one quarter of the global economy–in functioning as a quasi multilateral climate negotiating bloc. Additionally, Minister Cardenas spoke about shifting the paradigm in which finance ministers are more willing to accept flexibility when it comes to borrowing to the national government than to a city.
Sustainable Energy for All
Special Representative Ogunbiyi highlighted the difficult dilemma of implementing a green recovery in areas that are still trying to develop basic access to energy in the first place. As she stated, it is important when talking about economic recovery to not forget that fact that there’s still 718 million people who don’t have access to electricity and 2.8 billion people that don’t have access to clean cooking. However, she believes that the economic elements of a green recovery can fuel both increased clean energy and increased access to energy overall–stating that there are “3 times as many jobs in energy efficiency and renewables than in fossil fuel equivalent.” Additionally, she spoke about the need to invest locally for climate adaptation–in congruence with the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage–by highlighting the fact that over 90% of climate adaptation investment in Africa is coming from companies not based within the continent.
Ensuring a “Just Transition”
Commissioner Simson and others on the panel discussed the need for the transition to clean energy to be a “just transition.” In the context of the EU, Commissioner Simson gave the example of a country like Poland where much of their economy is still dependent on fossil fuel production and stating that their transition may take longer and need more support than a country like the Netherlands which already gets much of its energy from renewable sources. Additionally, Special Representative Ogunbiyi discussed how a “just transition” must “do not harm” and not lead to a neocolonial exploitation of developing countries by more wealthier nations assisting in the recovery process.
