COVID-19 has spread quickly across the globe, shaking the world to its core. The world economy has been severely impacted, forcing governments to reconsider short- and long-term responses – both domestic and international – to the impacts. Governments are urgently looking into fiscal stimulus measures to get virus-struck economies on stable ground.  

The full extent of the long-term impact on the economy is yet to unfold in the coming months and years, but the least developed countries (LDCs) will be the least able to cope with the impact. They are already challenged by multiple urgent priorities that require undivided financial and technical resources. 

LDCs are currently dealing with multiple shocks from climate and COVID-19-related impacts, responses for which would be strengthened if aligned with preparations and approaches for a successful COP26 in Glasgow, November 2021. Indeed, as the Paris Agreement moves into post-2020 implementation, harnessing the levers of both national implementation and global decision-making will be important to build back better from COVID-19.

There are opportunities to build back better with climate-friendly policies that could deliver a better result both for economies and the environment. As a result, IIED has been undertaking in-depth research to explore policy responses to build back better from COVID-19 from the LDCs’ perspective. The research focuses mainly on four workstreams: 

• Mobilising resources for equitable, green and resilient recovery through debt relief and debt swaps 
• Delivering rapid support for a green and resilient COVID-19 recovery  
• Renewable energy access for jobs and livelihoods, and
• Local nature-based solutions for COVID-19 recovery and resilience .

This webinar will explore the breadth of issues the LDCs have to deal with in their efforts to build back better, highlighting areas of interventions that could be deployed in a COVID-19 recovery.

The panel of experts will also discuss multifaceted responses to climate impacts that are exacerbated by COVID-19, exploring questions and identifying options that can inform both policymaking and grassroots action.

About the speakers

• Sonam P Wangdi is chair of the LDC Group of the UNFCCC
• Isatou F. Camara is principal development planner in the directorate of development planning of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, The Gambia
• Andrew Norton is director of IIED
• Clare Shakya is director of IIED’s Climate Change research group
• Anna Schulz is principal researcher and head of the global climate law policy and governance programme in IIED's Climate Change research group
• Sejal Patel is a researcher in IIED's Shaping Sustainable Markets and Climate Change research groups
• Ritu Bharadwaj is a senior researcher in the climate governance and finance team in IIED's Climate Change research group
• Kevin Johnstone is a researcher in IIED's Shaping Sustainable Markets research group
• Xiaoting Hou-Jones is a senior researcher in IIED's Natural Resources research group

About attending

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Photo: Youth volunteers mobilising against COVID-19 in a food market in Ethiopia (UNICEF Ethiopia via Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)