Did the Global COVID-19 Recovery Address Climate Adaptation and Resilience? An Analysis of Sixty-Seven Countries

This report analyzes whether 67 countries integrated climate adaptation and resilience into their COVID-19 recovery measures between January 2020 and December 2021. The analysis reveals a paradox where a country's income level was a more significant determinant of climate-responsive recovery than its actual vulnerability to climate risks.

• Only 24% of the 67 analyzed countries demonstrated a climate risk responsive recovery, defined as articulating a high-level goal to build climate resilience, approving concrete adaptation actions for specific physical climate risks, or both. Conversely, 42% were climate risk unresponsive, and 34% had insufficient evidence for determination.
• There is a significant gap in resilience integration based on vulnerability: the least vulnerable countries were three times more likely to take concrete action to address physical climate risks than the most vulnerable. Only 10% of the 20 most vulnerable countries—specifically Kenya and Vanuatu—approved investments or policies explicitly addressing physical climate risks, compared to 30% of the other 40 countries with available data.
• Income level strongly influenced the integration of climate resilience. While 42% of high-income countries approved adaptation and resilience-building measures, no low-income countries and only 21% of lower-middle-income countries did so.
• Countries that established high-level climate adaptation goals or policy commitments were more likely to implement concrete actions. Those with high-level goals integrated physical climate risks into 53% of addressed adaptation components, compared to 46% for those without such goals.
• The majority of risk-responsive recovery measures focused on water resources management, disaster prevention, infrastructure, and nature-based solutions, primarily targeting the management of drought and flooding.
• High- and upper-middle-income countries relied more heavily on direct investment for climate adaptation, whereas lower-middle-income countries used more diverse instruments. For example, Cambodia used monetary policy by extending loan forbearance due to flooding, and Mongolia used a fiscal measure via presidential decree to spend 1% of annual GDP on combating desertification.
• While 91% of the sample considered distributional equity in their recovery measures (such as support for women, youth, the elderly, and informal workers), these measures were typically broad-based and not specifically tied to building the climate resilience of those groups, with few exceptions like Canada and Vanuatu.

APA

Kratzer, B., Krishnan, N., Norström, A., Brandon, C., Thorpe, S., & Matthews, N. (2023). Did the Global COVID-19 Recovery Address Climate Adaptation and Resilience? An Analysis of Sixty-Seven Countries. Global Resilience Partnership. https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/covid-19-recovery-climate-adaptation-resilience-report.pdf

Chicago

Kratzer, Bradley, Nisha Krishnan, Albert Norström, Carter Brandon, Sean Thorpe, and Nathanial Matthews. Did the Global COVID-19 Recovery Address Climate Adaptation and Resilience? An Analysis of Sixty-Seven Countries. Global Resilience Partnership, 2023. https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/covid-19-recovery-climate-adaptation-resilience-report.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{kratzer2023did, author = {Kratzer, Bradley and Krishnan, Nisha and Norström, Albert and Brandon, Carter and Thorpe, Sean and Matthews, Nathanial}, title = {{Did the Global COVID-19 Recovery Address Climate Adaptation and Resilience? An Analysis of Sixty-Seven Countries}}, institution = {Global Resilience Partnership}, year = {2023}, url = {https://www.globalresiliencepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/covid-19-recovery-climate-adaptation-resilience-report.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }