Setting a structural agenda for a green economic recovery from COVID-19

The paper argues that COVID-19 recovery should move beyond short-term stimulus to 'structural reforms' that are systemic, long-lasting, and general purpose. It introduces a 'Green Structural Recovery Menu' featuring ten high-level measures, including green fiscal reform and natural capital investment. The authors provide a toolkit of prioritisation criteria—categorised as conventional, advanced, and systemic/political—to help governments align policies with specific goals like job creation or planetary boundaries. The report identifies significant gaps in current agendas, particularly regarding gender integration, nature-based solutions, and support for MSMEs. It also addresses the financing challenge for the global south, suggesting debt-for-nature swaps and blended finance. Case studies from countries such as South Korea, Indonesia, and Pakistan illustrate the practical challenges and mixed results of implementing these reforms.

• Effective green structural reforms are defined by three essential characteristics: they must be systemic (altering fundamental economic arrangements), long-lasting (persistent measures for resilience), and general purpose (applicable across most contexts).
• The paper identifies a 'Green Structural Recovery Menu' consisting of ten high-level measures: strengthened planning and governance, green fiscal reform, green monetary tools, sustainable financial systems, just transition and inclusion policies, green skills and qualification measures, nature-based solutions, green regulatory strengthening, green infrastructure investment, and empowering green behaviour change.
• Among the proposed structural measures, natural capital investment shows the strongest alignment across multiple prioritisation criteria, offering high social, economic, and environmental returns.
• There are significant thematic gaps in current green recovery implementation, specifically a lack of gender-integrated policy, under-investment in nature compared to low-carbon measures, and insufficient support for MSMEs and informal actors.
• Governments in the global south face acute financing constraints, often forced to redirect structural funds to immediate pandemic response; the report suggests solutions such as debt-for-nature swaps and a 'Guarantee Facility for Green and Inclusive Recovery' managed by the World Bank.
• Case studies reveal that green stimulus without structural frameworks can lead to 'brown growth'; for example, Pakistan's 10 Billion Tree Tsunami project occurred alongside continued deforestation for large-scale infrastructure and heavy investment in coal.
• South Korea's post-2008 recovery demonstrated that high spending on green measures does not guarantee a transition away from brown growth if structural strategies and specific emissions targets are absent.
• The report recommends that G7 and G20 governments increase financial delivery to the global south and provide political will for multilateral coordination to enable structural green transitions.

APA

Hopkins, C., & Greenfield, O. (2022). Setting a structural agenda for a green economic recovery from COVID-19. Green Economy Coalition. https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/assets/reports/GEC-Reports/Structural_Agenda_GE_Recovery_COVID19_PIGE_Paper_May22-v1.2.pdf

Chicago

Hopkins, Chris, and Oliver Greenfield. Setting a structural agenda for a green economic recovery from COVID-19. Green Economy Coalition, 2022. https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/assets/reports/GEC-Reports/Structural_Agenda_GE_Recovery_COVID19_PIGE_Paper_May22-v1.2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Hopkins |first1=Chris |last2=Greenfield |first2=Oliver |title=Setting a structural agenda for a green economic recovery from COVID-19 |publisher=Green Economy Coalition |date=June 2022 |url=https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/assets/reports/GEC-Reports/Structural_Agenda_GE_Recovery_COVID19_PIGE_Paper_May22-v1.2.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{hopkins2022setting, author = {Hopkins, Chris and Greenfield, Oliver}, title = {{Setting a structural agenda for a green economic recovery from COVID-19}}, institution = {Green Economy Coalition}, year = {2022}, month = jun, url = {https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/assets/reports/GEC-Reports/Structural_Agenda_GE_Recovery_COVID19_PIGE_Paper_May22-v1.2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }