UPDATE: As of 19 April 2021, we are informed that the German draft Recovery plan is revised and therefore this nomination is withdrawn from the website.
A striking lack of ambition: The German draft Recovery plan is weak on governance and fails to promote transformational changes towards a green economy.
In a nutshell:
- Draft Recovery Plan might not meet the 37% climate spending target
- No consideration of environmental safeguards
Details:
Presented in December 2020, the German draft Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) is, at best, a missed opportunity for the ecological transition. The draft fails to reach the required climate spending quota of 37%: currently, its green spending share reaches just 34%.
If we take into account all German recovery measures, thereby including the €130 billion stimulus package adopted in June 2020, the green spending share is only around 22%. On the other hand, almost 36% (€51.3 billion) of these funds are rated as negative or at least potentially negative for the green transformation.
The draft plan also makes no mention of the “do no significant harm” principle or of the Taxonomy for Sustainable Investments as a benchmark for climate-proof investments, which could help define indicators to monitor the RRP implementation going forward.
Sources:
German Ministry of Finance, German Recovery and Resilience Plan (2020) (in German)
E3G, Wuppertal Institut, Green Recovery Tracker: Germany (2021)
