Research and campaign group Positive Money welcomes a new report from MPs on the Conservative-led Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) which concludes that Covid-19 is a symptom of environmental breakdown and sets out how the government can enable a green economic recovery from the crisis.
Titled ‘Growing back better: putting nature and net zero at the heart of the economic recovery’, the report was a result of the EAC’s ‘Greening the post-Covid recovery’ inquiry, for which Positive Money presented oral evidence.
Among the recommendations, the report calls for the government to clarify the Bank of England’s mandate to include climate and nature objectives, to take steps to reduce the carbon intensity of financial markets, as well as a range of fiscal and financial incentives for a green recovery.
The report comes as the Chancellor is expected to make key changes to the Bank of England’s mandate alongside the March Budget, which will enable it to take more action on climate change.
Simon Youel, Head of Policy and Advocacy at Positive Money, said:
“For all the talk of ‘build back better’, the government’s response to Covid has so far bailed out an environmentally destructive and unequal ‘business as usual’, which drove us towards this crisis in the first place.
“The Environmental Audit Committee’s report puts further pressure on the government and the Bank of England to get their act together and take concrete steps to green the economy ahead of this year’s crucial COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.
“The government has a huge opportunity to kickstart a fair and green recovery in the March Budget. Alongside wide scale public investment in green jobs, the Chancellor needs to make sure his changes to the Bank of England’s mandate are as strong as possible, to allow our central bank to do everything necessary to shift billions of pounds away from fossil fuels and towards green alternatives ahead of COP26.”
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