Blog post 200514
Greener after
By Pascal Lamy, President emeritus, Jacques Delors Institute and former Head of the WTO ; Genviève Pons, Director General, Europe Jacques Delors and former Director of WWF EPO ; Agnès Borchers-Gasnier, Policy and research officer, Europe Jacques Delors ; Pierre Leturcq, Policy and research officer, Europe Jacques Delors ;
With Thomas Pellerin-Carlin, Director, Energy Centre, Jacques Delors Institute ; Emilie Magdalinski, Research fellow, Energy Centre, Jacques Delors Institute & Marie Delair, Research assistant, Energy Centre, Jacques Delors Institute.
The authors would like to thank Sami Andoura, Andreas Eisl, Connie Hedegaard, Eulalia Rubio, Pierre Serkine, Peter Sweatman, Erik van Wijk, Cees Veerman and Jean-Arnold Vinois for their valuable comments.
| 14/05/2020
While assessing the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic would be premature, it is already clear that this is the worst economic shock European economies have faced since World War II. The road to recovery will likely be long and bumpy. The European Commission’s Spring 2020 Economic Forecast projects the EU economy to contract by 7.4% in 2020, while the EU-wide unemployment rate is expected to increase from 6.7% in 2019 to 9% in 2020, particularly affecting southern EU Member States.
The roadmap to recovery adopted by the European Council on 21 April calls for an “unprecedented investment effort” for a “more resilient, sustainable and fair Europe”. In order to deliver on this mandate, the EU’s Recovery Fund, which the European Commission is about to unveil, should thus be both massive in size and scope as well as boldly transformative in its content. This is also in line with the resolution adopted by the European Parliament on 17 April.
Before the crisis, and following the European Parliament elections last year, the European Union embarked on a new five-year strategic roadmap in which the decarbonisation and digitalisation of our economies have been prioritised. Pre-crisis tense debates about the economic and social costs of ecological benefits will no doubt be re-ignited as the recovery package will be debated among European institutions and the public at large.
After the adoption of adequate, immediate rescue measures, we now turn to the recovery phase. Echoing calls for a green recovery, this paper argues that a very large green investment plan delivers the necessary economic stimulus and builds resilience to future shocks.
Delivering on such an ambitious and transformative mandate can only happen under some specific conditions which need to be explicitly acknowledged.
We argue and exemplify that:
- the economic and environmental ambitions of the EU’s COVID-19 recovery plan should go hand in hand, resulting in a double win;
- delivering on both sides requires a rigorous selection of investment programmes, targeting sectors with high potential for economic stimulation, job creation and ecological transformation.
The first part of this paper presents the criteria policy-makers can use to assess which investments can be part of a green economic stimulus programme. First, green recovery investments consist of timely, temporary and targeted measures able to stimulate the economy quickly and until it recovers -for instance, over the next five years. Second, green recovery investments do accelerate the structural transformation of the economy towards a more healthy and resilient future, characterised by zero pollution, biodiversity restoration and climate neutrality by 2050.
The second part of the paper uses those criteria to provide concrete investment recommendations in five sectors – buildings, road mobility, clean innovation, circular economy and coastal tourism -that are essential to a genuine green recovery. In those five sectors alone, the EU and its Member States could safely invest at least €800 billion in the next five years, as part of green recovery plans.
This paper further recommends that the European Commission and national governments should assess the contribution of other key sectors that are beyond the scope of this paper but that are nonetheless key for a genuine recovery, such as renewable energy, electricity interconnections, smart grids, public transport, railways, shipping, agriculture, forestry and the decarbonisation of EU industries and aviation.
SUR LE MÊME THÈME
ON THE SAME THEME
PUBLICATIONS
Strengthening EU green sovereignty through the Critical Raw Materials Act
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Towards climate neutrality: what transformations by 2030 under the FitFor55?
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The European Green Deal in the face of rising radical right-wing populism
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MÉDIAS
MEDIAS
L’urgence climatique, première victime des élections européennes ?
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L’Europe du climat: vers une grande dissolution ?
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Elections européennes 2024 : les partisans du Pacte vert se disent rassurés
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ÉVÉNEMENTS
EVENTS
TOWARDS A EUROPEAN HEALTH UNION – Prevention, crisis management, multilateralism | Presentation of the report published in December 2021 [FR]
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Seminar | Heavy Industry and climate : the challenges of the transition [FR]
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Conference on the Future of Europe – Climate Change, Environment/Health
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European EnerGreenDeal Conference
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What place for responsible capitalism in Europe? (FR)
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Euroquestion | Quelle gestion de l’endettement public à la suite du Covid ?
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Table Ronde : “La politique européenne de l’énergie à l’heure du changement climatique”
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Euroquestions | Un an de Green Deal – 5 ans d’Accord de Paris : où en est le monde ? Où en est l’Europe ?
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Euroquestions | Un an de Green Deal – 5 ans d’Accord de Paris : où en est le monde ? Où en est l’Europe ?
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Visioconférence : Pandémie – L’Europe de la relance
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Euroquestions | Can European funds guarantee the rule of law ?
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Le monde en crises : impacts de la COVID-19 sur le commerce international
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2020 virtual Outermost regions Forum | “Together for a sustainable future”
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Comment garantir une relance verte et juste ?
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Euroquestions | Relance et puissance : mots d’ordre de la rentrée européenne
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Wébinaire | Préparer un avenir propre et résilient pour les villes européennes
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Negotiating the Future EU-UK Relationship in times of Pandemics
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WEBINAR | A European Border Carbon Adjustment proposal
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WEBINAR | The day after the European Commission’s Post-Covid economic recovery proposal
![](https://institutdelors.eu/wp-content/themes/Avada-Child-Theme/images/evenementbleu.png)
Wébinaire | Présentation du rapport “Les français et l’Europe entre défiance et ambivalence”
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Webinar | Greener After – A Green Recovery Stimulus for a post-COVID-19 Europe
![](https://institutdelors.eu/wp-content/themes/Avada-Child-Theme/images/evenementbleu.png)
Green Recovery Post Covid-19: European or National Strategies?
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Quel rôle pour l’Europe dans un monde post-Covid ?
![](https://institutdelors.eu/wp-content/themes/Avada-Child-Theme/images/evenementbleu.png)
WEBINAR | Overcoming Covid-19 crises by building a clean and resilient Europe
![](https://institutdelors.eu/wp-content/themes/Avada-Child-Theme/images/evenementbleu.png)
Académie n°7 – L’Europe économique
![](https://institutdelors.eu/wp-content/themes/Avada-Child-Theme/images/evenementbleu.png)
LIVE STREAM | Digital sovereignty in the age of pandemics
![](https://institutdelors.eu/wp-content/themes/Avada-Child-Theme/images/evenementbleu.png)
Webinar | EU Green Deal: an innovative path to reach a low carbon Europe?
![](https://institutdelors.eu/wp-content/themes/Avada-Child-Theme/images/evenementbleu.png)
Webinar | SURE : a welcomed catalyzer for an European Unemployment Insurance*
![](https://institutdelors.eu/wp-content/themes/Avada-Child-Theme/images/evenementbleu.png)
Webinar | The day after the Eurogroup Meeting : outcomes & opportunities
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WEBINAR | THE EUROPEAN GREEN DEAL AN ECONOMIC STIMULUS DURING A TIME OF CRISIS
![](https://institutdelors.eu/wp-content/themes/Avada-Child-Theme/images/evenementbleu.png)
Greening the EU trade policy
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La Pacte Vert européen, mode d’emploi
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Café-Débat de l’Académie Notre Europe #1
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Watch the all conference
Energising the Green Deal
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What role for research and innovation in the european green deal?
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Energy Innovation : how to deliver on the European green deal
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Webinar on the industrial strategy for the Green Deal
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Académie Notre Europe n°2 – Green Europe
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Brussels, 16th October 2019 – Three solutions to finance the Green Deal
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Wavre, 16 May 2019 – The most important European elections of the history?
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Monaco, 25th of March – Monaco Blue Initiative : Ocean updates
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Brussels, 19th March – High-level conference: Oceans the future of the Blue Planet
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