A Shared Vision of a Just Recovery

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In recent weeks, Friends of the Earth was privileged to be involved in an amazing collaboration to produce “A Shared Vision for a Just Recovery”. This was published just before the budget last week and endorsed by 14 national coalitions and 50+ organizations from all sectors of Irish civil society, from trade unions to women’s and youth advocates, to community and homelessness organizations.

Together we laid out six principles for a fair and sustainable recovery from the social and economic shock of the Covid-19 pandemic. Read more here. 

Introducing the joint statement to the media, I commented:

“The coronavirus pandemic has turned the world upside down. It has exposed not only major weaknesses in Ireland’s economy and health services but also deep-seated inequalities.

“As the Government faces the challenges posed by the pandemic and begins to look towards long-term recovery, we have a chance to reset the clock and build back better. We cannot go back to the way things were before.”

Launching the Shared Vision before the budget allowed me to talk about it when I gave my reaction to the Budget on RTE here.

As the Government plans to follow-up the budget with a National Economic Recovery Plan to be launched in November, the groups who signed the joint statement are urging the Government to adopt six principles for a fair and sustainable recovery:

  1. Protect and invest in public services, prioritising public health and wellbeing
  2. Invest in people
  3. Deliver faster and fairer climate action and restore and protect nature
  4. Build solidarity and community across borders
  5. Ensure inclusive and participatory decision-making
  6. Redefine progress through a focus on wellbeing and sustainable development

You can read the full statement here.

For Friends of the Earth this collaboration grew out of the conversations we had with social justice organizations last year about how to protect the vulnerable from a rising carbon tax and with the trade unions about how to ensure a Just Transition for the workers and communities most impacted by the move to stop burning peat and coal for electricity. That developed into the dialogue that produced the One Future manifesto for faster and fairer climate action before the election. Finally, in early September, we sat down with a cross-section of civil society representatives for 3 days of workshops about what a Just Recovery looks like. We look forward to deepening our collaboration with these organizations into the future.