It’s Wednesday, May 6, and support for a green coronavirus recovery is growing.
On Monday, a coalition of major global investment groups released a statement saying that the world’s richest countries should make sure that their pandemic economic recovery plans are sustainable — and in accordance with the 2016 Paris Agreement.
The signatories manage trillions of dollars collectively and include Ceres, the United Nations–backed Principles for Responsible Investment network, and the Institutional Investor Group on Climate Change (which counts BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, as a member).
“Recovery plans that exacerbate climate change would expose investors and national economies to escalating financial, health and social risks in the coming years,” the statement said. “Governments should avoid the prioritisation of risky, short-term emissions-intensive projects.”
These major investors are just the latest to join the green recovery garden party. The United Nations has been calling on the world’s 20 biggest economies to put their coronavirus relief dollars toward decarbonization. German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently called on governments to do the same. The environment ministers of 10 European countries signed an op-ed calling for a European Green Deal in the beginning of April. The U.S., on the other hand, seems to have thrown its garden party invite away.
The Smog
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