Recovery, Renewal, Resilience

CarbonBrief have developed an interactive grid where you can explore and track the progress of how different countries across the world are implementing green recovery and renewal plans which aim to cut emissions in the aftermath of COVID-19. Below, we offer some examples of diverse initiatives from across the world:

• France allocated funding to “promote and support environmental performance” in their food and agricultural sector, e.g. funding to support farmers to adapt their farming systems to lower their impact on the environment. France have also allocated funding to create over 1,000 “eco-responsible restaurants in rural communities”, along with investment in “energy efficiency of public and private buildings, social housing, insulation and low-carbon heating”
• Sweden allocated investment to raise the “energy performance of Sweden’s housing stock and to support improvements in rental properties”
• Finland plan to “phase out oil heating in both households and public buildings” and allocated funding to the “wood constriction programme which promotes the use of timber by enhancing industry expertise, developing legislation and building regulations, and providing factual information”
• Chile have committed to plant trees on 24,000 hectares of land and invest in better fire management as part of its “mitigation and adaptation commitments related to forests and biodiversity”. Chile will also have invested in modernisation and irrigation projects for farmers, as part of the COVID-19 budget response

Wastewater-based epidemiology groups in Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the USA have already reported detecting traces of COVID-19 in wastewater. Although COVID-19 is not known to infect humans through sewage or wastewater, similar diseases can, and so monitoring the behaviour of COVID-19 in these environments is important. Consider integrating sewer surveillance and wastewater inspections into systems for COVID-19 monitoring:

• Develop a 'dashboard' of data to assess the correlations between all collated COVD-19-related indicators as seen in the Netherlands
• Provide information on potential transmission pathways and improve the early warning of new outbreaks by understanding the relationships between: wastewater analysis, the number registered infected people, and societal or behavioural traits

Consider:

• The cash flow of SMEs and their profit margin. In Sweden, SMEs can generally manage their cash flow at this time for around 6 weeks and only have margins of 2-3% to rely on which makes them extremely vulnerable
• The eligibility of SMEs for government loans. Many struggling businesses are unable to apply for government loans, and while it is possible to borrow, and postpone payment on value-added tax (VAT), known in some countries as a goods and services tax, interest needs to be paid which can be unaffordable resulting n businesses preferring to file for bankruptcy
• The wider negative impacts of increased bankruptcies e.g. consumers and companies becoming more conscious about lending and spending which can stifle the economy further

This lesson was contributed by a Security Expert in Sweden.