In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, a group of 180 political decision-makers and business leaders has formed a European alliance for a “Green Recovery”. Launched on 14 April 2020, the move was the initiative of Pascal Canfin, chair of the environment committee at the European Parliament (ENVI). “There will be a before and after Covid-19 crisis. We are choosing to accelerate the ecological transition when the time comes to reinvest in the economy,” said Canfin. “The Covid-19 has not made the climate crisis go away. The public money that states and Europe will spend to reinvest in the economy must be consistent with the [EU] ‘Green Deal’,” he added.

The alliance comprises 79 cross-party MEPs from 17 member states, 28 business associations representing 10 different sectors, 37 CEOs, the European trade union confederation representing members from 90 national trade unions and 10 trade union federations, seven NGOs and six think tanks. Representatives of polymer producers are among the signatories, such as Covestro (Leverkusen / Germany; www.covestro.com) CEO Markus Steilemann, DSM (Heerlen / The Netherlands; www.dsm.com) co-CEO Geraldine Matchet and Neste (Porvoo / Finland; www.neste.com) CEO Peter Vanacker.

Other signatories spanning the plastics industry include Saint-Gobain (Paris / France; www.saint-gobain.com) CEO Pierre-André de Chalendar, Suez (Paris; www.suez-environnement.com) CEO Bertrand Camus, Lego group (Billund / Denmark; www.lego.com) CEO Niels Christiansen, CEO Jesper Brodin of Ikea’s parent company Ingka (Leiden / The Netherlands), L'Oréal (Clichy / France; www.loreal.com) CEO Jean-Paul Agon, Tarkett (Nanterre / France; www.tarkett.com) CEO Fabrice Barthélémy, Unilever (Rotterdam / The Netherlands; www.unilever.com) CEO Alan Jope, Danone (Paris; www.danone.com) CEO Emmanuel Faber, Coca-Cola’s (Atlanta, Georgia / USA; www.coca-colacompany.com) Western Europe business unit president Tim Brett and Nestlé (Vevey / Switzerland; www.nestle.com) CEO Mark Schneider.

Those forming the alliance have committed to collaborate and contribute to the post-pandemic investment decisions needed to reboot the economy, which is expected to suffer a far deeper shock than that experienced after the financial crisis in 2008. They said the moment of recovery will be an opportunity to accelerate the transition towards climate neutrality and healthy ecosystems, calling for a global alliance to “support and implement the establishment of Green Recovery Investment Packages.”

Neste’s CEO Vanacker said, “While it is important to tackle the coronavirus, we also need to look for ways to help rebuild the world after the crisis. When we plan our path to that world, we have an opportunity to build a sustainable and resilient economy and society. Now is the time to design that vision.”

The alliance noted that it is not a matter of creating a new economy from scratch, pointing out the “tremendous progress” made during the past 10 years in developing new technologies and reducing the cost of transitioning to greener alternatives. For instance, 10 years ago, zero-emission vehicles were only a prototype, wind energy was three times more expensive than it is today, and solar energy seven times.