Integrating Natural Capital into Government Post-COVID Economic Decision-Making

The report finds that France's Plan de relance largely neglects natural capital, with 47% of its budget categorized as neutral or impossible to assess regarding biodiversity. While 28% of the budget is expected to have a positive impact—primarily through climate mitigation—25% is expected to have a negative impact due to support for environmentally damaging industries and company tax reductions. The authors recommend implementing environmental conditionality for funds and adopting nature-based solutions to ensure long-term economic resilience.

• The Plan de relance fails to sufficiently integrate natural capital into its recovery strategy, with a significant portion of the budget having no clear positive impact on biodiversity. Specifically, 47% of the budget is either "impossible to assess" (11%) or "qualified as neutral" (36%).
• Approximately 28% of the recovery budget (22 measures) is expected to have a positive impact on natural capital, though these are heavily weighted toward climate change mitigation rather than direct biodiversity conservation. Only 1% of the total budget is allocated to measures with a "strong positive impact," such as the plant-based proteins strategy and ecological restoration.
• About 25% of the recovery budget (3 measures) is expected to have a negative impact on natural capital. This is primarily driven by a €20 billion reduction in company taxes, which the report argues reduces the government's capacity to finance conservation and indiscriminately benefits environmentally harmful products, as well as support for the air and automotive industries.
• The report identifies a missed opportunity to utilize nature-based solutions (NBS) in the recovery plan. It argues that NBS could provide immediate economic stimulus and job creation while addressing societal challenges and biodiversity loss.
• France's overseas territories possess exceptional biodiversity and are critical to the country's natural capital, yet the report suggests the recovery plan does not fully leverage this. These territories host 1.4% of the world's plants and 3% of molluscs, with 9 of 12 territories located in biodiversity hotspots.
• Monetary measures implemented by the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Banque de France were found to be multi-sectoral and lacked a specific focus on biodiversity, making their impact on natural capital impossible to measure within the study's scope.

APA

Green Economy Coalition (2021). Integrating Natural Capital into Government Post-COVID Economic Decision-Making. https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/assets/reports/GEC-Reports/GR-Country-reports/GEC_Report_FranceStudy_clean.pdf

Chicago

Green Economy Coalition. Integrating Natural Capital into Government Post-COVID Economic Decision-Making. 2021. https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/assets/reports/GEC-Reports/GR-Country-reports/GEC_Report_FranceStudy_clean.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Green Economy Coalition |title=Integrating Natural Capital into Government Post-COVID Economic Decision-Making |date=23 November 2021 |url=https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/assets/reports/GEC-Reports/GR-Country-reports/GEC_Report_FranceStudy_clean.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{greeneconomycoalition2021integrating, author = {{Green Economy Coalition}}, title = {{Integrating Natural Capital into Government Post-COVID Economic Decision-Making}}, institution = {Green Economy Coalition}, year = {2021}, month = nov, url = {https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/assets/reports/GEC-Reports/GR-Country-reports/GEC_Report_FranceStudy_clean.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }