Manifest for a sustainable economic recovery

More than 240 personalities from politics, civil society and business, including the founder of SUST4IN, Marcio Viegas, have come together to demand the Commission for Social and Economic Reconstruction recovery plans based on sustainability criteria.

The COVID-19 crisis is the largest crisis society has faced since World War II, and urgent and extreme measures to fight it are having a tremendously negative impact on the economy, which has been practically paralysed.

To mitigate this effect, governments are approving massive economic stimulus packages, probably the largest in history. But how can we use these stimuli? How can we maximise their value for the Society? Governments’ decisions must be carefully valued, because they will have a great impact and long-lasting effects, conditioning our economy for decades.

In this context, an initiative promoted by extremely diverse agents, the Green Recovery Alliance, has been launched in Europe, which advocates that stimulus policies must be effective from the economic and social point of view and, at the same time, be aligned with sustainability and biodiversity policies, which are essential.

This initiative is based on the European Green Deal as a growth strategy based on three pillars: digitisation, decarbonisation and resilience, understanding that competitiveness and the environment go hand in hand, because there is no economic or social sustainability without environmental sustainability.

Spain has ideal conditions for taking advantage of the opportunities of this recovery strategy to create economic opportunities and jobs: an enormous potential for the development of renewable energies, a unique natural capital, a well-positioned industry and a firm commitment to energy efficiency.

In this context, the undersigned support a recovery towards a more sustainable and robust economy and advocate for alliances between political parties, companies, unions, the media, NGOs and civil society to support and implement a sustainable stimulus package, based on the best scientific knowledge and best practices that allow progress towards a more prosperous, sustainable, healthy and resilient society.

They believe that these issues must be taken into account in the considerations of the Parliament Committee for the Reconstruction of Spain after the Covid-19 crisis.