Objectives of the consultation
This inquiry issued by the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee considered how the post-pandemic recovery can be aligned with the UK’s climate and environment goals and the role that the UK can play in driving a green recovery internationally.
The Committee was seeking evidence on the following questions:
- How can any fiscal and economic stimulus packages be aligned with the UKs ambitions on net-zero, biodiversity, the circular economy, and Sustainable Development Goals?
- How should the policy response to the current crisis differ from the response to the global financial crash in 2008?
- In what areas should interventions be targeted to deliver both economic and environmental benefits in the short and long term?
- How could the Autumn budget be used to shift taxation from economically beneficial things, such as jobs and incomes; to environmental harms, such as pollution and waste?
- What sustainability conditions should be attached to Government bailouts for high-carbon industries?
- How can the economic recovery stimulus be used to deliver green jobs at a time of potentially high unemployment?
- The pause in economic activity, fall in traffic and increase in working from home during the lockdown has resulted in rapid reductions in air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions; what measures can be utilised in the recovery to continue these trends as economic activity resumes?
- In the run up to Conferences of the Parties to UN conventions on climate change and biodiversity next year, how can the UK use its influence, as both host of COP26 and when holding the Presidency of the G7 in 2021, to influence the nature of economic rescue packages around the world?
The inquiry concluded on 14 August 2020.
CIBSE response
CIBSE submitted a response to the inquiry and it will be published, amongst other submissions, on the Environmental Audit Committee inquiry page.