Insights Blog

As countries around the world continue to battle the spread of COVID-19, economic forecasts remain grim. The World Bank estimates a 5.2% contraction in our global GDP for 2020.

As India recovers from impact of the coronavirus pandemic, it also faces a threat from climate change, which could derail long-term recovery efforts. Climate Policy Initiative provides a roadmap for a comprehensive green finance strategy in India to help ensure a sustainable recovery.

While the global coronavirus pandemic has created a global tipping point, upending multiple social systems, governments and the private sector have an opportunity to ensure that a post-COVID transition that is green, and a lower carbon transition that is just.

Access to electricity ensures increased economic productivity, healthcare services and better educational prospects and is thus crucial for socio-economic development. While grid expansion and advances in the distributed Renewable Energy (RE) industry have made significant efforts to reach unserved and under-served populations, several livelihoods, healthcare and educational facilities still lack this vital resource.

The 3Returns Framework contrasts business as usual against green growth scenarios to understand changes in natural, social & human, and financial capital and the benefits – or “returns” – derived from them, both monetary and non-monetary alike.

We are working to accelerate the transition to a zero-carbon economy by using systems innovation to effect change in whole places and value chains.

Climate change is not a distant possibility. The capacity of the Earth’s system to absorb greenhouse gas emissions is already exhausted. The IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C estimates that human activities have already caused approximately 1.0°C of global warming above pre-industrial levels.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges and caused an exceptional economic downturn. In an interview, Mr. Li Yong, Director General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), discusses how targeted green industrial policies and investments in green industries can lead to the structural changes necessary to recover from COVID-19, with opportunities to boost sustainable economic growth and the creation of jobs in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

In the coming decades, SIDS’ resilience will be tested with climatic extremes impacting the availability of water for food production. Self-sufficiency in fresh and healthy foods is, therefore, widely advocated by international organizations and SIDS governments. Yet, the required timely delivery of fresh water for crop cultivation cannot be taken for granted.

In a world reeling from the COVID-19 impact on health and economy, smart public stimulus is a powerful tool to both avoid the more searing effects of recession and effect a structural change towards a low-carbon economy.

The creation of a virtual sustainable infrastructure community of learners aims to provide the tools and knowledge needed to ensure that economic, social and environmental considerations are taken when developing construction projects in the coronavirus recovery phase.