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EU countries urged to support ‘green recovery’ across the globe

(EurActiv, 16 Nov 2020) European countries should use their influence as shareholders of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to encourage green investments in countries across the world, said Climate Envoy for the Netherlands, Marcel Beukeboom.

Beukeboom was speaking on Tuesday (10 November) at the launch of a Statement on a Resilient Recovery by the High Ambition Coalition, a group of developing countries led by the Marshall Islands which formed in the run-up to the 2015 UNFCCC meeting in Paris.

“Can we sit for the long run in the old polluting economies that we have inherited from the past or can we take this as an opportunity to leap forward and invest in a future that we want, which is the same for all of us, cleaner and more equitable?” Beukeboom asked.

“Often cheap sources of energy need to be replaced by something else and that is something where we can work by investing in alternatives that are sustainable,” he said.

Developing countries in the global south are hit hardest by climate change and COVID.

But there are clear benefits behind a global response to COVID and climate change, including jobs and health improvements, according to Agripina Jenkins Rojas, a climate advisor for  Costa Rica.

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EurActiv, 16 Nov 2020: EU countries urged to support ‘green recovery’ across the globe