Drawdown after Lockdown

Which Climate Policy in Spite of or Thanks to COVID-19?

11 June 2020

The Covid-19 crisis is a global pause button. The economic activity has slowed down drastically, leading to catastrophies. But there are also some unintentional positive side effects. The global demand for oil has gone down one third. Residents of Indian and Chinese cities woke up to a blue sky, dolphins are playing in Italian harbor cities again, the once muddy Venetian canals are clear again… Human kind sees the economy come to a hold and notices that nature gets some much needed breathing space.

The corona crisis offers us a moment to reflect on the way our activities affect our environment. Which incentives does the crisis give to slow down our carbon based economies? How do we prevent the return to business as usual? The global pandemic gives us the opportunity to a daring climate policy. Decisions that otherwise would take years due to political tug-of-war, have now been taken in a couple of days. For instance, companies are more and more inclined to have their employees work from home a couple of days a week, continuing after the corona crisis. In other words the public support emerged for some very concrete and practical solutions to the climate crisis.

But which solutions have the biggest impact? What adaptations and investments do we best pursue on short notice? Which answers to the climate issues are realistic now – in the pandemic – in Belgium and on a global scale? To tackle these questions, UCSIA and the Leerstoel Economie van de Hoop organise a webinar. Roy Straver is director and head of the research association Drawdown Europe. Economist Geert Noels will reply from the economic and Belgian context. Veerle Vandeweerd will moderate the event. As biochemist and former director environment and energy van the UN development programme, she has years of experience with global and local climate policy.

This event will be in Dutch.

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