Exclusive: analysis finds countries pouring money into fossil fuels to fight recession.
The prospect of a global green recovery from the coronavirus pandemic is hanging in the balance, as countries pour money into the fossil fuel economy to stave off a devastating recession, an analysis for the Guardian reveals. In at least 18 of the world’s biggest economies, more than six months on from the first wave of lockdowns in the early spring, pandemic rescue packages are dominated by spending that has a harmful environmental impact, such as bailouts for oil or new high-carbon infrastructure, outweighing the positive climate benefits of any green spending, according to the analysis.
Meanwhile, promises of a low-carbon boost are failing to materialise. Only a handful of major countries are pumping rescue funds into low-carbon efforts such as renewable power, electric vehicles and energy efficiency.
A new Guardian ranking finds the EU is a frontrunner, devoting 30% of its €750bn (£677bn) Next Generation Recovery Fund to green ends. France and Germany have earmarked about €30bn and €50bn respectively of their own additional stimulus for environmental spending.guardian
Even countries that have boasted of green recovery plans are frequently spending much more on activities that will maintain or increase greenhouse gas emissions
However, Lord Nicholas Stern, the climate economist, said countries still had time to move into a new phase of recovery, where green spending could be prioritised.guardian
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Earth Matters is a weekly feature of Daily Kos.
• Response to pandemic cuts greenhouse gas emissions in 2020, but it’s just a blip: The World Meteorological Organization reported Monday that global emissions this year will fall as much as 7%. But that decline won’t make a long-term difference in the addition of the three most powerful greenhouse gases in our already over-burdened atmosphere, the WMO stated in its annual greenhouse gas bulletin. They just accumulated at a slower pace:
Preliminary estimates indicate a reduction in the annual global emission between 4.2% and 7.5%. At the global scale, an emissions reduction this scale will not cause atmospheric CO2 to go down. CO2 will continue to go up, though at a slightly reduced pace (0.08-0.23 ppm per year lower). This falls well within the 1 ppm natural inter-annual variability. This means that on the short-term the impact of the COVID-19 confinements cannot be distinguished from natural variability, according to the Bulletin.
The current level of CO2 in the atmosphere in 2019 hasn’t been seen since 3-5 million years ago, WMO stated. And concentrations of another greenhouse gas, methane, increased last year by 8 parts per billion, which “continues the trend of the past decade of methane increasing by 5–10 ppb per year,” the WMO noted. Oksana Tarasova, head of the WMO's atmospheric research division, told Inside Climate News, "Now you would say, 'Wow, we were in complete lockdown, it felt like life was stopped,' but the decrease for the year is only 7% at most. But it is not surprising because we didn't change anything fundamentally. It was basically business as usual. It shows how life is so deeply connected with emissions, with everything we do."
Whether we alter this deep connection in a meaningful way depends on how far we—as a global species of 7.8 billion—are willing to abandon business as usual and recover from the economic impacts of the pandemic by deploying a green approach. More aggressive Paris Climate agreement pledges, more investment in renewable energy, adopting more sustainable agriculture, and ending fossil fuel subsidies and bailouts are just a few of the pieces needed to accomplish a green transformationwww.dailykos.com/...