Climate Leadership Coalition (CLC), a climate business network established by Finnish business leaders, proposes that the operating conditions of local enterprises weakened by the coronavirus and the entire global economy be reconstructed and funded through green recovery measures to mitigate climate change.
Climate Leadership Coalition has joined the EU-wide European Alliance for a Green Recovery initiative, which has been signed by 180 business leaders, politicians, trade unions, thinktanks and non-governmental organisations. Announced on Tuesday, the initiative aims to build a post-coronavirus economy based on green recovery, climate neutrality and the protection of biodiversity. The initiative is led by Pascal Canfin, the chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety.
“The Covid-19 epidemic is a major challenge for us all, but we cannot let it prevent or slow down the transition to a climate-neutral economy. Climate Leadership Coalition supports the initiative and we believe that a large share of the recovery actions can be aligned with the European Green Deal objectives as well. It is important to support innovations related to all technologies facilitating a carbon-neutral society and to encourage their use with market-based measures,” says Pekka Lundmark, President and CEO, Fortum, a member of the CLC Board and Chairman of the Board of the Confederation of Finnish Industries.
CLC, which comprises 65 Finnish companies, cities, universities and research institutes, is Europe’s largest climate business network in terms of members. The stock market value of CLC’s company members is more than half that of the Helsinki Stock Exchange. The green recovery initiative has been signed by MEPs Miapetra Kumpula-Natri and Sirpa Pietikäinen, who are both personal members of Climate Leadership Coalition.
“Restarting the economy must be done sensibly. Social support should not be allocated to targets that are unusable in the long term. Green reconstruction is not done over the horizon of a year but over a decade and taking emissions into account. This can be achieved so that rapid support for employment remains a parallel goal,” considers Miapetra Kumpula-Natri.
“Green recovery is a must both economic- and environmental-wise. Climate change will not be stopped by the Covid-19-virus. The vast resources that are going to be leveraged to alleviate corona economic crises will give us the opportunity to build a more sustainable and competitive European economy. We need to grab to the opportunity with both hands and high ambition,” says Sirpa Pietikäinen.
CLC is of the view that there is no need to create a green recovery programme and measures from scratch. For years, work as has been done at the local, national and EU level to reach climate-neutral goals and to develop technological solutions. By synchronising recovery packages with climate goals we will be able to move forward speedily in line with Green Deal goals.
“The coalition involved in the initiative undertakes to promote green recovery and to share best practices and experiences with all interested parties,” says Jouni Keronen, CEO, Climate Leadership Coalition.
See the European Alliance for a Green Recovery – initiative.
More information: Jouni Keronen, CEO, Climate Leadership Coalition tel. +358 50 453 4881 and Kari Mokko, Development Director, Climate Leadership Coalition tel. +358 40 751 3281
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