Climate Policy: Special Issue on COVID-19 recovery and climate policy

This Special Issue presents 11 new papers, published in response to a Climate Policy call for papers issued in May 2020, during the first phase of the pandemic. The invitation to submit papers was broad and wide-ranging: the Climate Policy editorial team was looking for high-quality analysis that could shed light on the interactions between the evolving pandemic and the climate emergency, and in particular how the recovery packages that were just starting to be announced might be harnessed to accelerate the transformation towards a lower-carbon, climate resilient and more equitable world. It is rare for Climate Policy to issue an open call for papers in this way, but in this case, the motivation was clear: there was an urgent need to bring forward new research so as to further an emerging understanding and narrative around what is good practice in COVID-19 recovery and how this can and should align with climate change policy. Many papers were received in response to the call – clearly, the research community was as eager to explore these topics as the editorial team – and the most innovative and insightful among them can be found in this Special Issue. They broadly cover four main themes:

• economic evidence and perspectives, on how best to align economic policies to combat climate change and recover from COVID-19;
• governance and emerging notions of good governance around the interface between COVID-19 recovery measures and climate policy, from the international to the local level of action;
• sector strategies for a just and green recovery in a select number of sectors (industry, fossil fuel supply sector, air transport); and
• financial policies, including a framework for new policies that could underpin a pathway to a sustainable recovery and a proposal for a new financial mechanism with well-being and quality of growth at its centre.

Please, follow the link to read and download the full issue.