Are We Building Back Better? Evidence from 2020 and Pathways to Inclusive Green Recovery Spending

This report presents early data outputs from the Observatory to understand COVID-19 fiscal spending priorities in 2020 and which environmentally and economically desirable policies are facing underinvestment. It explores generalised policy types that present positive characteristics and countries that may reap particularly high benefits from these policies. Chapter 1 examines the economic impacts of COVID-19 on countries in 2020 and considers the temporal dimension of global spending. Chapters 2-6 each explore the characteristics of announced spending in one of five priority green policy areas: green energy investment, green transport. investment, green building upgrades and energy efficiency investment, natural capital investment, and green research and development (R&D) investment. Throughout these chapters, policy examples from countries were selected based on congruence to the green spending archetype categories to illustrate how these policies are being applied.