Sustainable economics & policy
Green Recovery
Economic recovery packages designed so that crisis-response spending also delivers environmental benefits — renewable energy, efficiency, nature, and green jobs.
Definition
A green recovery is a package of environmental, regulatory, and fiscal reforms intended to restore prosperity after an economic crisis — such as the 2008 financial crisis or the COVID-19 recession — while also benefiting the environment. Typical measures support renewable energy, energy efficiency, nature-based solutions, sustainable transport, green innovation, and green jobs, with the explicit aim that action against recession also acts against climate change.
References
policy context and tracking
definition and scope
Overview
What it means
Crises force governments to spend fast and big; green recovery argues that this spending either locks in the old economy or builds the new one. After COVID-19, tracking initiatives — the OECD Green Recovery Database, Oxford's Global Recovery Observatory, and the Energy Policy Tracker — assessed how green announced packages actually were, finding green measures a minority of the trillions committed.
How it is used
The concept framed post-2020 stimulus design (notably the EU's Recovery and Resilience Facility climate-spending requirements) and remains the template for any future crisis response.
Why it matters
Recovery spending is among the largest discretionary investments governments ever make; its colour shapes the economy for decades.
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