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The document argues that economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic must avoid siloes by integrating development and climate resilience, ensuring that stimulus measures are stress-tested for climate risks, and empowering vulnerable populations through locally led planning. It highlights the need for reforming fossil fuel subsidies, utilizing resilience bonds, and providing debt relief to vulnerable countries to support a sustainable recovery aligned with the SDGs and the Paris Agreement.

The report by Good Governance Africa (GGA) outlines critical interventions for South Africa's education sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on the phased return of learners and the protection of vulnerable youth. It highlights severe infrastructure gaps, such as 3,475 schools lacking adequate water supply, and warns that the 'digital divide' prevents the poorest 80% of learners from accessing curricular learning during lockdown. GGA advocates for the prioritisation of Grade R learners due to their low infection risk and the critical nature of early language acquisition. The document also emphasizes the plight of Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres, where 99% of practitioners reported a loss of fees, and calls for the integration of unemployed youth and parents as support resources to mitigate shortages in educators and psycho-social services.

The document warns governments that force majeure is a "double-edged sword" during the COVID-19 pandemic, as they may face claims from companies while simultaneously needing to invoke force majeure to defend their own emergency measures. It recommends a cautious approach, prioritizing negotiated short-term solutions "without prejudice" and avoiding broad public legal statements that could undermine future defenses in contract or investor-state disputes.

The report examines the increasing need for energy resilience in the Upper Roaring Fork Valley, Colorado, following the 2018 Lake Christine Fire. It argues that traditional grid hardening and backup generators are insufficient and proposes a shift toward distributed energy resources (DERs) and community-centric planning. Through a partnership between Holy Cross Energy (HCE) and local stakeholders, the report identifies five priority resilience areas: community microgrids, bulk power supply flexibility, mobile generation fleets, gasoline pump resilience, and critical end-use efficiency. It emphasizes the need for 'blue sky' value—benefits during normal operations—to justify the cost of 'black sky' emergency investments and recommends new business models, such as split ownership and updated tariffs, to facilitate the deployment of clean energy resilience solutions.

The author contends that the EU carbon market (ETS) fails to drive industrial decarbonisation because over 90% of industrial emissions are covered by free allowances, leading to stagnating emissions since 2012 and windfall profits for companies. To address this, the document proposes that the upcoming revision of the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) should remove the explicit exclusion of greenhouse gases (Article 9.1), allowing carbon emission limits to be integrated into environmental permits based on 'best available technology' (BREFs).

WWF International provides a framework for corporate forest and climate goal-setting, advocating for a mitigation hierarchy that prioritizes avoiding and reducing footprints before pursuing compensation. The guide argues that protecting existing forests is significantly more effective for climate mitigation than tree planting, noting that preventing the loss of one hectare of mature forest avoids approximately 100 tons of carbon, whereas tropical reforestation sequesters only about 3 tons per hectare annually. It further recommends that companies align carbon credit purchases with specific quality criteria and national commitments (NDCs) and pursue transformational change through improved land tenure and multi-stakeholder initiatives.

ClientEarth and IISD Europe argue that the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) acts as an obstacle to climate action due to its investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism, which allows energy companies to challenge environmental regulations. They contend that the European Commission's current modernisation proposal is insufficient because it maintains the ability for investors to bypass national courts and seek high damages awards. The authors propose a specific ISDS carve-out for climate measures, a requirement for investors to exhaust domestic legal remedies first, and a redesign of the treaty to differentiate between low-carbon and carbon-intensive energy investments.

A commentary by the Think Sustainable Europe network urging the European Council to ensure recovery plans are based on scientific evidence, strengthen resilience, protect vulnerable populations, avoid carbon lock-in, and provide sufficient green funding. The authors propose an independent green recovery scrutiny board to monitor the adequacy of these plans.

The statement asserts that COVID-19 has exposed the fragility of a global food system where 820 million people were chronically hungry prior to the pandemic. It calls on G20 ministers to protect the rights of peasant farmers and migrant workers, curb financial speculation in agricultural futures to prevent price crises, and transition toward a sustainable food system based on food sovereignty and local production rather than long supply chains and external inputs.

The document argues that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fragility of a global food system where 820 million people suffered chronic hunger before the crisis. It calls on G20 governments to protect the rights and health of food producers and migrant workers, restrict financial speculation in agricultural futures to prevent price crises, and rebuild the food system to stop environmental degradation and climate crisis drivers. The authors advocate for a global political response coordinated by the UN Committee on World Food Security, grounded in international human rights instruments and the principle of food sovereignty.

The statement urges G20 ministers to address the vulnerability of food producers and migrant workers during the COVID-19 crisis. It calls for measures to prevent financial speculation on food, the protection of fundamental rights for agricultural workers, and a systemic shift away from industrial food chains toward sustainable, local food sovereignty to mitigate future pandemics and climate crises.

A statement by Friends of the Earth International and numerous global endorsers calling for an immediate cessation of trade negotiations at the WTO, bilateral, and regional levels. The authors argue that government resources must be redirected toward managing the COVID-19 health crisis, specifically by removing intellectual property rules and unilateral sanctions that hinder access to vaccines, medicines, and medical equipment. The document asserts that the pandemic necessitates a fundamental rethink of trade rules that encourage monopolies and restrict affordable healthcare.

Mighty Earth and the VOICE Network express concern over the health and economic impacts of COVID-19 on cocoa farmers, who often earn under $1 per day. The organization demands that the chocolate industry implement emergency measures—including relief funds and health communication—and that governments in the US, EU, and Switzerland make corporate bailouts conditional on living wages, transparency, and the end of deforestation and child labor.

The Center for International Environmental Law argues that the oil, gas, and plastic industries are in a state of systemic decline that predates the COVID-19 pandemic, and that government bailouts or regulatory rollbacks will not reverse this trend.

The Alliance for Renewable Electrification (ARE) and its partners argue that the COVID-19 pandemic has endangered decentralised renewable energy (DRE) projects and the broader sector's future, threatening the achievement of SDG7 and other 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. To prevent the sector's failure, the document proposes five specific interventions: the creation of a 'Global DRE Relief Fund', the fast-tracking of procurement and funding procedures, the establishment of a 'Rural Electrification Stimulus Plan', the formal recognition of the DRE sector as an 'essential service', and increased technical assistance for DRE companies.

A joint letter from several financial and environmental organizations calling on the NGFS to prevent central banks from supporting high carbon emitters during the COVID-19 crisis. The authors argue that current liquidity measures risk returning to "business as usual" and propose specific actions, including the exclusion of polluting assets from collateral frameworks and quantitative easing programs, and the development of green and brown taxonomies to mitigate systemic climate-related financial risks.

The document calls for financial institutions to stop supporting new metallurgical coal mines and to require steel companies to adopt decarbonization targets. It highlights that steel plants in several European countries were among the highest CO2 emitters in 2019 and suggests that hydrogen and electric arc furnaces powered by renewables are viable paths toward decarbonization.

A joint letter from several NGOs calling for the activation of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to support EU Member States during the Covid-19 crisis without imposing austerity measures, instead aligning recovery funds with the European Green Deal and climate objectives.

The We Mean Business coalition calls for governments to integrate a climate and resilience lens into economic stimulus packages and public financial support for companies. The author argues that recovery efforts must avoid 'business-as-usual' and instead incentivize zero-carbon technologies to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Specifically, businesses receiving public assistance should be required to adopt TCFD-aligned risk disclosures, set science-based targets consistent with a 1.5°C temperature limit, and prioritize investments in low-carbon solutions such as building retrofits and renewable energy.

The authors argue that COVID-19 economic bailouts present a rare opportunity to integrate climate goals into stimulus policies. They suggest linking financial assistance for sectors like aviation and oil and gas to carbon emission limits and clean energy transitions, citing the 2008 US auto bailouts as a precedent for successful conditional support. The text advocates for specific measures such as a carbon tax on jet fuel, the creation of a US national electricity market, and the adoption of the EU's green deal targets to ensure long-term economic competitiveness and energy security.