Green Recovery

GIZ supports the German government and its partner countries in coping with the immediate as well as the long-term consequences of the COVID-19 crisis.

The COVID-19 pandemic confronts countries worldwide with extreme and unprecedented challenges. GIZ supports the German government and its partner countries in coping with the immediate as well as the long-term consequences of the crisis. The aim of the support is to make economic and social recovery climate and environmentally friendly and to strengthen the resilience of people, organizations, companies and ecosystems to the consequences of future crises.

The initial focus of the "Corona response" measures was to compensate for the immediate social and economic effects of the crisis. However, it is now becoming increasingly clear that the crisis is also having a medium- and long-term impact on the economic, social, political and ecological development of the economy and society, and is also jeopardizing the achievement of the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The devastating health impacts of the virus and the far-reaching effects of the lockdown on national economies aggravate extreme poverty and threaten to counteract progress in both economic and social development, as well as climate and environmental protection.

The pandemic should be perceived not only as an acute health crisis with far-reaching economic and social consequences, but also as a symptom of an ongoing, existential environmental and climate crisis triggered by the so-called megatrends of recent decades - globalization, urbanization, biodiversity loss, climate change. The guiding principle for coping with the pandemic in the medium to long term must therefore be a comprehensive transformation of the economy and society that is oriented toward international goals such as the 2030 Agenda, the Paris Climate Agreement and the Biodiversity Convention and increases resilience to future crises.

There is a need for governments to immediately mitigate the economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, there is a risk that investment decisions to deal with the pandemic will lower the level of ambition of international climate change and sustainability goals and sacrifice environmental laws and participation rights to enable short-term effects on the business cycle. Measures to overcome the consequences of COVID-19 may subsequently accelerate the climate and environmental crisis.  The medium- to long-term consequences would be disproportionately worse for the global community and exacerbate both global and social imbalances.

GIZ understands Green Recovery as measures for the resumption of economic and social life that can be implemented quickly, but which are also geared to the long term and are particulary aligned to the long-term opportunities and risks for the environment and climate. These will not only overcome the immediate social, economic and environmental consequences of the COVID-19 crisis, but at the same time set the course for structural reforms and transformative change toward sustainability, resilience and climate neutrality (double dividend).  This is the only way to achieve long-term green growth that ensures the preservation of the natural resources for future generations.