What Policies Address Both the Coronavirus Crisis and the Climate Crisis?
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What Policies Address Both the Coronavirus Crisis and the Climate Crisis? Gustav Engström1 · Johan Gars1 · Niko Jaakkola2 · Therese Lindahl1,3 · Daniel Spiro4 · Arthur A. van Benthem5,6 Accepted: 3 July 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract The coronavirus pandemic has led many countries to initiate unprecedented economic recovery packages. Policymakers tackling the coronavirus crisis have also been encouraged to prioritize policies which help mitigate a second, looming crisis: climate change. We identify and analyze policies that combat both the coronavirus crisis and the climate crisis. We analyze both the long-run climate impacts from coronavirus-related economic recovery policies, and the impacts of long-run climate policies on economic recovery and public health post-recession. We base our analysis on data on emissions, employment and corona-related layoffs across sectors, and on previous research. We show that, among climate policies, labor-intensive green infrastructure projects, planting trees, and in particular pricing carbon coupled with reduced labor taxation boost economic recovery. Among coronavirus policies, aiding services sectors (leisure services such as restaurants and culture, or professional services such as technology), education and the healthcare sector appear most promising, being labor intensive yet low-emission—if such sectoral aid is conditioned on being directed towards employment and on low-carbon supply chains. Large-scale green infrastructure projects and green R&D investment, while good for the climate, are unlikely to generate enough employment to effectively alleviate the coronavirus crisis.
1 Introduction As decision makers around the world scramble to respond to the coronavirus crisis and the deep and possibly prolonged recession that follows it, commentators have called for them to use the opportunity to also further our progress in mitigating climate change, which a majority of people believe to be as serious a crisis as the coronavirus (Ipsos 2020). By pursuing policies that can both alleviate the economic recession caused by the coronavirus and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the current crisis presents an opportunity to put the world on a new trajectory with a lower risk of future climate Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s1064 0-020-00451-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Arthur A. van Benthem [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
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calamities. Crisis management often requires exceptional policies, and may temporarily alter constraints on decision making. Strategic vision at such a time can help decision makers take into account longer-term objectives, which might be difficult to meet under normal circumstances. As Rahm Emanuel famously said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste”. Yet, for climate policies to have a chance of implementation at
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