COVID –19 AND THE LOW-CARBON TRANSITION. IMPACTS AND POSSIBLE POLICY RESPONSES © OECD 2020 26 June 2020
The COVID-19 crisis is an enormous challenge to economies and societies across the world, but it must not derail global efforts to limit warming to well-below 2°C. Addressing the health crisis and providing relief to affected businesses and workers are the main current priorities. However, the post-crisis recovery programmes present an opportunity to more closely align public policies with climate objectives and limit the risk of locking-in carbon-intensive infrastructure. Forthcoming stimulus packages can be designed to orient investment towards sectors and technologies that can accelerate the transition, and improve resilience to future shocks from climate change. The focusof this brief is on the immediate steps that governments can take to ensure that emergency measures implemented to tackle the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis do not derail their efforts to address pressing environmental challenges and improve the environmental health and resilience of societies.