There's clearly a high risk of counting chickens, but it's increasingly feeling like the COVID-19 crisis in Europe is approaching a new phase. Infection and death rates have peaked, and mostly begun to decline. Discussion is increasing on how to ease lockdown restrictions 1/X
This week also feels like a huge step forward in solidifying the message that recovery plans need a strong 'green' focus. This has been out there for a while, but now the number of voices calling for it & the evidence to support it has surged. bbc.co.uk/news/science-e… 2/X
I'd like to think that one useful contribution to this discussion was the report @ClimateCLG produced on the future of jobs and skills in Europe - clearly showing how climate action can support economic resilience and employment corporateleadersgroup.com/reports-eviden… 3/X
We looked at the main 'megatrends' affecting the future of European labour and how climate action interacted with them. We clearly concluded that proactive policies, particularly including climate policies can help deliver better outcomes for the economy and the workforce. 4/X 
A strong policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic therefore clearly needs to be aligned with outcomes and measures to support the climate transition and other transitions. 5/X
This point is borne out by work from a group of UK academic experts who have drafted a working paper and briefing on a net zero recovery. The authors, who include @CambridgeZero head @emilyshuckburgh worked through the UK Universities COP26 network zero.cam.ac.uk/stories/green-… 6/X
These papers draw on a longer working paper by @camjhep from @TheSmithSchool which thoroughly examines and surveys expert economic opinion on the links between fiscal recovery packages and climate action. smithschool.ox.ac.uk/publications/w… 7/X
The conclusions are clear- drawing from applicable lessons of dealing with the 2008 financial crisis we can see that proactive stimulus packages are effective at supporting economic recovery and green stimulus measures are above average in their effectiveness. 8/X
These points are not lost on the business community. @mendiluce has been leading the @WMBtweets community to increasingly assertively make this case. wemeanbusinesscoalition.org/build-back-bet… 9/X
One thing I'm particularly proud of is how strongly the European business networks have been responding. Business voices have been making the case for a green recovery in Germany... 10/x
... France... 11/X
... Slovenia... 12/X
... Spain... 13/X
... and of course, we have the EU Green Recovery Alliance convened by @pcanfin euractiv.com/section/energy… 14/X
Yesterday this was joined by a new grouping of significant business voices as @ETC_energy published their 7 priorities to help the global economy recover energy-transitions.org/content/7-Prio… 15/X
To a certain extent the resilience of the green economy is already on display - for example the renewables sector is providing one bright spot of relative strength ft.com/content/205e5a… 16/X
And in the UK vehicles sales show that market segment that is holding up best (or more clearly has fell the least) is electric vehicles, with the Tesla Model 3 providing April's best selling car theguardian.com/business/2020/… 17/X
Finally it's worth noting how clearly the official advice is clear that a clean, green recovery is the way to go. In Europe, Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen has made it a fundamental part of her story. euractiv.com/section/future… 18/X
And in the UK, official independent advisors @theCCCuk have written with their usual clarity and rigor advising the UK & its devolved governments to urgently follow a clean recovery plan. theccc.org.uk/2020/05/06/tak… 19/X
So - good advice abounds, a consensus is building, the job is not easy but there are many hands willing to help. As soon as we can be confident that the public health threat is under control, let's get to work on a clean, green, healthy recovery. 20/20
extra bonus tweet... While we've facilitated & supported many of the statements above @ClimateCLG hasn't put out something in its own name, so I've written to @vonderleyen expressing the CLG's support for the #GreenDeal & a clean recovery #BuildBackBetter corporateleadersgroup.com/reports-eviden…
