Accelerating Paris-Aligned Financial Flows: A Typology for Facilitating a Paris-Aligned COVID-19 Recovery

The document evaluates the COVID-19 recovery packages of G20 nations, finding a prevalence of business-as-usual (BAU) investments that risk undermining Paris Agreement goals. It argues that the lack of pre-existing Paris-compatible project planning hindered green recovery efforts and suggests a multifaceted approach using monetary, fiscal, and regulatory levers to align financial flows with climate commitments.

• Between March 1, 2020, and January 31, 2021, G20 members primarily utilized business-as-usual (BAU) policies and investments, which support carbon-intensive activities and increase the long-term cost of climate action by locking in high-carbon technologies.
• G20 recovery efforts have focused on a limited set of policy levers, specifically fiscal policy and budget support and financial/real-economy regulations, primarily targeting the energy, transport, and building sectors while neglecting agriculture, industry, nature, water, waste management, and disaster risk reduction.
• The ability of countries to implement Paris-compatible interventions during the pandemic depended on whether they had already integrated climate compatibility into their project planning and possessed "shovel-ready" projects before the crisis.
• Multilateral development banks (MDBs) and bilateral agencies focused their portfolios on immediate health crisis needs and liquidity for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), though multilateral climate funds showed more support for nature and adaptation activities.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Accelerating Paris-Aligned Financial Flows: A Typology for Facilitating a Paris-Aligned COVID-19 Recovery. https://www.wri.org/research/accelerating-paris-aligned-financial-flows-typology-facilitating-paris-aligned-covid-19

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Accelerating Paris-Aligned Financial Flows: A Typology for Facilitating a Paris-Aligned COVID-19 Recovery. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/accelerating-paris-aligned-financial-flows-typology-facilitating-paris-aligned-covid-19.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Accelerating Paris-Aligned Financial Flows: A Typology for Facilitating a Paris-Aligned COVID-19 Recovery |url=https://www.wri.org/research/accelerating-paris-aligned-financial-flows-typology-facilitating-paris-aligned-covid-19 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendaccelerating, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Accelerating Paris-Aligned Financial Flows: A Typology for Facilitating a Paris-Aligned COVID-19 Recovery}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/accelerating-paris-aligned-financial-flows-typology-facilitating-paris-aligned-covid-19}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }