Working with Vivid Economics, F4B publishes the Greenness of Stimulus Index (GSI), a regularly updated analysis of the biodiversity and climate impacts aspects of governments' economic rescue and recovery packages.

 

The GSI assesses how well governments’ COVID-19 stimulus efforts contribute to sustainable development, protect biodiversity and ensure resilience to climate change. It gauges the current impact of COVID-19 responses, allows tracking of progress over time, and identifies opportunities for improvement.

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The analysis finds that announced stimulus to date has a net negative environmental impact in the majority of countries. As a result, the vast majority of the money being injected into national economies is damaging to future environmental sustainability. However, there are signs of improvement.

 

The GSI has inspired and influenced thinkers and decision-makers arguing to use  stimulus packages to address the joint crises of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and the global pandemic: governments and international organisations have used it to inform key decisions on how they spend stimulus money, while universities, think tanks,  NGOs and the IMF have cited it in their flagship reports. The GSI has raised the profile of nature in the stimulus conversation through media coverage. 

Over the next year we will continue to update the GSI with new stimulus announcements and continue to expand the coverage beyond the G20. We are also working to deepen the analysis using more detailed taxonomies.