Where the money is going

The bulk of green measures represents grants or loans (making up around 37% of the 680 measures in the database), tax reductions or other subsidies (17% of the total), and regulatory changes at around 11%.

More than 60% of green measures are sector-specific (slide 3) and, in terms of number of measures and funding, they target, by far, energy and surface transport (comprising around 20% and 16% of the total respectively).

This is good news since these sectors account for a high proportion of GHG emissions in many countries, and are often good candidates for quick roll-outs (e.g. renewable electricity projects and electric vehicle infrastructure).

On the other hand, measures for key sectors like aviation and industry show overwhelming balance towards mixed and negative categories.

Climate change mitigation is by far the most common environmental dimension impacted by the recovery measures tracked (nearly 90% of funding), both positively and negatively, and about equally split (slide 1). In synergy with climate measures, the next most common dimension impacted is air pollution (with around a third of total funding, again evenly split).

In contrast, other environmental dimensions feature much less strongly. Biodiversity accounts for less than 10% of the allocated funding. Water is also poorly represented, accounting for around 8% of positive measures in both funding and measures. And waste and recycling are hardly represented at all.

Read more in The OECD Green Recovery Database : Examining the environmental implications of COVID-19 recovery policies