The ‘Green Recovery’ alliance was launched in April at the initiative of Pascal Canfin, chair of the Environment Committee of the European Parliament.
The informal alliance brings together an impressive number of members of European Parliament, civil society groups, CEOs, business associations, the European trade union confederation, NGOs and think tanks. The alliance was initiated after EU environment ministers launched an appeal for the European Green Deal to be centralised in the EU’s post-pandemic recovery plan.
“There will be a before and after COVID-19 crisis. We are choosing to accelerate the ecological transition when the time comes to reinvest in the economy. The COVID-19 has not made the climate crisis go away. The public money that states and Europe will spend to reinvest in the economy must be consistent with the Green Deal” said Canfin.
“The alliance is not about rebuilding an entire economy from scratch. In the past ten years, new technologies such as renewables, zero-emission mobility, agro-ecology, and energy efficiency have been developed which have “massively reduced” the cost of the ecological transition, After the financial crisis in 2009, we had not yet demonstrated the profitability of housing renovation, zero-emission cars were only prototypes, wind turbines cost 3 times more than today, and solar 7 times”, the signatories say in their statement.
Signatories add they are “committed to offering the necessary investment solutions, aligned with climate commitments, to revive the economy after the crisis” and they call for a worldwide alliance to follow suit.
Source: Euractiv