Vivid Economics' Report "Fund Nature, Fund the Future: EU Recovery Plans miss the triple win opportunity to for nature, climate and the economy"

Vivid Economics

The report provides quantitative analysis of ten EU National Resilience and Recovery Plans (NRRPs) and finds that they miss a major opportunity to invest in a nature-positive recovery. The NRRPs aim to mitigate the economic and social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and build a more sustainable and cohesive Europe-wide economy. While the NRRPs largely deliver on the climate agenda, they do not form a coherent response to the multiple crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and the economic ramifications of COVID-19. They are heavily lopsided: climate-positive investments outweigh nature-positive investments by a factor of 6, while nature-negative investments outweigh climate-negative investments by a factor of 9. Furthermore, the EU has no adequate mechanism to assess their impact upon nature. The analysis shows that only 8% of spending enhances nature, which misses a major opportunity to invest in a nature-positive recovery, while 10% of spending harms nature, showing an outsized neglect of nature considerations, while no sufficient conditions ensure that the rest of the spending is nature-positive.