In a speech to the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, held by video conference this year owing to the ongoing threat of the Covid-19 virus, International Monetary Fund (IMF) MD Kristalina Georgieva said that, for the post-pandemic recovery phase to be made sustainable, “we must do everything in our power to promote a green recovery”.

To green the economic recovery from what is likely to be the worst downturn since the Great Depression, Georgieva proposed three priorities. First, that all Covid-19 financial lifelines be made conditional on emission reductions, the phasing out of fossil-fuel subsidies and investments in clean-energy and transport, as well as sustainable agriculture and climate resilience. Secondly, that green finance be promoted and, third, that the world institutes a correct carbon price, which the IMF estimates as being $75/t.

Georgieva is not alone in linking the economic recovery to a green recovery, with the International Renewable Energy Agency’s (Irena’s) latest Global Renewables Outlook report showing that a decarbonisation of the energy system will support short-term economic recovery, while creating millions of jobs. Such a pathway to deeper decarbonisation will require an energy investment of up to $130-trillion, but Irena director-general Francesco La Camer argues that the socioeconomic gains of such an investment would be massive. “Transforming the energy system could boost cumulative global gross domestic product gains above business-as-usual by $98-trillion between now and 2050. It would nearly quadruple renewable-energy jobs to 42-million, expand employment in energy efficiency to 21-million and add 15-million in system flexibility.”

Closer to home, Dennis Davis, a Judge of the Western Cape Division of the High Court, and Mike Morris, Emeritus Professor at the University of Cape Town, have collaborated to outline the potential that resides in linking the country’s industrial policy to the green-energy transition. In an opinion piece published by Daily Maverik, Davis and Morris argued that green energy is, arguably, the most viable and extensive industrial policy to ensure reliable electricity supply, while spawning new businesses and jobs. “If the country is serious about a reboot of an economy that can work for 55-million people, here is one clear industrial policy mechanism which takes us out of the repetitively failing ‘business as usual’ model we consistently revert to, and creates the potential for a new industrialisation growth path.”

There is little question that Covid-19 has helped many to connect the dots between our current unsustainable energy, production and mobility practices and the threat these pose to humanity. The good news is that many of the technology solutions to mitigate that threat already exists. The even better news is that they are increasingly cost competitive and will become even more so as the world’s industrial and economic strategies and policies are fully calibrated to their accelerated deployment.

It’s a growing case of the world being in ‘green’ union. The true tipping point will only arrive, however, once political leaders fully grasp the opportunities and let go, as justly as possible, of unsustainable incumbent industries.