The report provides quantitative analysis of ten EU National Resilience and Recovery Plans (NRRPs) and finds that they miss a major opportunity to invest in a nature-positive recovery. The NRRPs aim to mitigate the economic and social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and build a more sustainable and cohesive Europe-wide economy. While the NRRPs largely deliver on the climate agenda, they do not form a coherent response to the multiple crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and the economic ramifications of COVID-19. They are heavily lopsided: climate-positive investments outweigh nature-positive investments by a factor of 6, while nature-negative investments outweigh climate-negative investments by a factor of 9. Furthermore, the EU has no adequate mechanism to assess their impact upon nature. The analysis shows that only 8% of spending enhances nature, which misses a major opportunity to invest in a nature-positive recovery, while 10% of spending harms nature, showing an outsized neglect of nature considerations, while no sufficient conditions ensure that the rest of the spending is nature-positive.
