Recommendations for a Climate-Resilient, Sustainable & Just COVID-19 Response and Recovery

Advocacy

This policy brief outlines CARE’s key demands for a COVID-19 response in the context of the climate crisis and economic recession. CARE calls on world leaders who will be discussing and adopting strategies with long-lasting impacts in the coming weeks (G7 and G20 Heads of States’ Summits, European Council etc.) to make ambitious commitments, in particular in scaling up support to the most vulnerable countries. CARE continues to advocate for the essential role of multilateral cooperation, particularly in the context of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to massively scale up ambition in mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, and support in the longer term. Every international opportunity to increase ambition and mobilization in the next 18 months prior to the rescheduled COP26 must be taken advantage of.

As part of its COVID-19 policy agenda, CARE calls on governments to implement and fund better, greener and more inclusive response and recovery plans by applying the following overarching principles:

• Aligning all economic stimulus with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
• Putting people’s needs, voices and prospects at the center of all social and economic relief packages.
• Harnessing the benefits of a zero-carbon, climate-resilient, inclusive, gender-just and sustainable post-COVID economy.
• Upholding financial support commitments to developing countries towards these objectives.