Recovery, Renewal, Resilience

Effective local climate leadership is central in tackling local climate disasters such as floods, forest fires and extreme heatwaves. Local governments are adept at initiating infrastructure investments, policies, and programs that strengthen resilience against future climate stresses and shocks. Consider how to locally navigate climate-action priorities through the COVID-19 crisis to:

• Boost climate-action momentum to mitigate risks and costs of delayed action e.g. combined impacts of COVID-19 and climate change on vulnerable people, economic disruption, public health (clean air, sufficient safe food and water)
• Prepare for impacts of climate change and COVID-19. Address threat multipliers such as pollution or natural disasters through local reduction of carbon emissions, retrofitting buildings, defences, and ring-fenced funding
• Build on residents' and businesses' behaviour changes during the pandemic that reduce emissions and enhance resiliency e.g. working from home, careful used of medical resources
• Maximize local benefits of an economic recovery that is climate friendly e.g. focus on the circular economy, use of renewable energies

This may include:

• Reimagining how cities are built and organised e.g. Brussels is creating 40km of new cycle paths; France is providing cyclists with subsidies; UK has announced a œ2bn infrastructure scheme to encourage more walking and cycling
• Accelerating environmentally friendly projects such as increased investment in electric vehicle infrastructure

Also consider the unintended consequences of green infrastructure solutions. In the case of battery production for electric vehicles, consideration should be given to the environmental degradation caused by mining for battery components for electric vehicles, the ethical considerations of using mines in developing countries, the lifecycle of batteries and how they will be recycled in large quantities.