Veronika Safrankova, Head of the UNEP Brussels Office, spoke at “Solidarity, resilience and green recovery" event

Veronika Hunt Safrankova, Head of the UNEP Brussels Office spoke at “Solidarity, resilience and green recovery: What next for the EU Staff COVID 19 Solidarity Response Fund?” on October 1^st in Brussels . This event was organized by EU staff for Climate in cooperation with King Baudouin Foundation and discussed a fund dedicated to supporting the response to the COVID-19 crisis and supporting a green social and economic recovery. 

 

In her intervention, Ms Hunt Safrankova addressed the opportunities and challenges of combining solidarity with the promotion of resilience and planetary health. She opened by highlighting the significant global diversity loss driven by pollutants, oil spills, marine plastic pollution. A recent UNEP report showed that environmental degradation increases risk of zoonotic transmission. She stressed that while these issues have complicated solutions, part of the solution is to deploy a “one health approach”, with further inclusion of the environmental dimension. 

 

Ms Hunt Safrankova further reinforced the interconnection of nature loss, climate change and pollution in contributing to forest fires, tornadoes, floods, pandemics. Importantly, the most vulnerable and poor in society are the most affected. 

 

Ms Hunt Safrankova highlighted that the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility presents an opportunity to invest greener, but it is also important to shift subsides to nature positive investments. However, she stressed the need for nature-based solutions and noted that we need to give nature space to restore itself.