WinWindow:TrackingtheCo-BenefitsofaGreenRecovery

UK policies for decarbonisation and green economic recovery can impact health, job creation, biodiversity, communities, and the economy. While there are many co-benefits arising from policies that move the UK towards net zero, some impacts are not always desirable or distributed evenly or fairly across different groups in society.

A key challenge is to better understand the spatial and temporal variation associated with potential benefits, to identify knowledge gaps and understand whether policies that seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions can also deliver sustained environmental net gains alongside societal and economic impacts.

This project will explore and demonstrate the feasibility, methodology and data needed to develop a long-term ‘Co-benefits Tracker’ focussed on real-world impacts. The overall objective is to provide policy advice for local and central government to help them factor environmental and societal impacts into policies that seek to deliver net zero and contribute to economic recovery post Covid-19.

Specific project aims include to:

1. Improve policy assessment and monitoring of a just transition to a low-carbon economy;
2. Inform policy design in a way that acknowledges and maximises co-benefits, minimises disbenefits and ensures their fair distribution; and
3. Enable informed stakeholder engagement to help implement actions for a green recovery.