Greening recovery efforts can help nations build forward better after the pandemic to increase the well-being of people and resilience of countries to future crises. Green fiscal policies in particular can play a key role in countries’ recovery efforts by removing inefficiencies in public expenditures and raising additional fiscal revenues which can be directed towards immediate COVID-19 relief measures while supporting longer-term investments. While this course was developed prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, its contents therefore remain relevant to current policy discussions.
One practical challenge lies in ensuring that countries are both aware of these opportunities and that they possess the knowledge and skills to take advantage of them. To address this challenge, the course sets out to provide interested participants from government, business, and civil society with an introduction to the green fiscal policy tools and approaches to foster a more sustainable future.
The course aims to provide participants with a solid understanding of fiscal policy instruments and reform strategies available to policymakers to advance the green economy transition. It contains five lessons, each taking approximately 20 minutes to complete.