The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on how vulnerable our current socio-economic systems are to large shocks. This has been a wake-up call for societies around the world to build long-term resilience. The recovery in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic offers a unique window of opportunity to not just recover, but to build a sustainable, prosperous future while also addressing persisting social and environmental challenges. Are Member States taking this opportunity? And what are the opportunities of great potential and also significant risk in the plans?

This one-hour lunchtime webinar will highlight the potentials and risks of the National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs) to pave the way for a systemic transformation towards a resilient and sustainable Europe. ZOE will share the results of a holistic assessment looking into 13 NRRPs to understand their contribution to systemic transformation towards a sustainable and just society. This webinar invites participants from CSOs to an open discussion of these results, how they can use it for their work and how it could be integrated into wider SDG work.

Background Info:

Since the end of April 2021, Member States have been submitting their official NRRPs to receive funds from the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). The RRF offers EUR 671 billion in new funding to both alleviate the immediate economic challenges, as well as to decarbonize and dematerialize economic sectors and to restore ecosystems, while simultaneously creating good, green jobs for a healthy and just economic recovery. Recognizing the importance of the environment in resilience-building, the European Commission set a requirement for 37% of funding to climate objectives and has set out a framework for excluding certain activities which lock in environmentally destructive measures through the “Do No Significant Harm” principle. However, there is a significant risk that the associated investments and reforms underutilize the historic opportunity that the recovery offers for the systemic transformation to a green and just society.

ZOE Institute and the New Economics Foundation developed the Recovery Index for Transformative Change (RITC) to assess the NRRPs. Rather than aggregating different environmental or economics benchmarks, or looking only at the climate tagged measures, the index takes a holistic look at the transformative potential and risks of investments and reforms across the plan.

Agenda

13.00 – 13.10 Welcome from

Jakob Hafele, Managing Director at ZOE Institute for future-fit economies

Patrizia Heidegger, Director of Global Policies and Sustainability, EEB, and SDG Watch Europe

13.10 – 13.35 The potential and risks of the NRRPs for systemic transformation towards a green and just society: Insights into the methodology and NRRP assessment results of the Recovery Index for Transformative Change (RITC)

Elizabeth Dirth, ZOE Institute for future-fit economies

Emmet Kiberd, NEF Consulting

13.35 – 13.55 Q&A and moderated discussion , Chaired by Katy Wiese, EEB

13.55 – 14.00 Closing, by Elizabeth Dirth, ZOE Institute for future-fit economies