Details zur Publikation

Kategorie Textpublikation
Referenztyp Zeitschriften
DOI 10.1007/s11625-021-01003-z
Lizenz creative commons licence
Titel (primär) Making the COVID-19 crisis a real opportunity for environmental sustainability
Autor Lehmann, P.; de Brito, M.M.; Gawel, E.; Groß, M.; Haase, A.; Lepenies, R.; Otto, D.; Schiller, J.; Strunz, S.; Thrän, D.
Quelle Sustainability Science
Erscheinungsjahr 2021
Department OEKON; SUSOZ; UPOL; BIOENERGIE
Band/Volume 16
Heft 6
Seite von 2137
Seite bis 2145
Sprache englisch
Topic T5 Future Landscapes
Keywords COVID-19; Green recovery; Pandemic; Sustainability transitions
Abstract An optimistic narrative has gained momentum during the first year of the pandemic: the COVID-19 crisis may have opened a window of opportunity to “rebuild better”, to spur societal transitions towards environmental sustainability. In this comment, we review first evidence of individual and political changes made so far. Findings suggest that economies worldwide are not yet building back better. Against this background, we argue that a naïve opportunity narrative may even impair the progress of transitions towards environmental sustainability because it may render green recovery measures ineffective, costly, or infeasible. Based on these observations, we derive conditions for green recovery policies to succeed. They should consist of a policy mix combining well-targeted green subsidies with initiatives to price emissions and scrap environmentally harmful subsidies. Moreover, green recovery policies must be embedded into a narrative that avoids trading off environmental sustainability with other domains of sustainability—and rather highlights respective synergies that can be realized when recovering from the COVID-19 crisis.
dauerhafte UFZ-Verlinkung https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=24804
Lehmann, P., de Brito, M.M., Gawel, E., Groß, M., Haase, A., Lepenies, R., Otto, D., Schiller, J., Strunz, S., Thrän, D. (2021):
Making the COVID-19 crisis a real opportunity for environmental sustainability
Sustain. Sci. 16 (6), 2137 - 2145 10.1007/s11625-021-01003-z