Green Recovery

Technology is gendered. It may be treated as neutral, but its application and support through government policy impact gendered identities, needs and priorities. South Korea’s pandemic response and post-pandemic strategy have inadvertently reversed the nation’s progress in promoting gender equality. This article reviews two gendered experiences of the digital transformation precipitated by Covid-19. It points out the absence of gender inclusion in the national policy advocating digital transformation, and the resulting marginalisation of women. 

What should a Covid-19 pandemic recovery plan look like for a true recovery? An anti-austerity Green New Deal may be the new solution.

In July 2020, South Korea announced its New Deal, which aimed to propel the country into a green economy. But work is still needed to solidify policies towards a carbon neutral society.

South Korea has put forth a “Green New Deal”, whose ambiguous targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and failure to propose a just transition to clean energy make the program unworthy of its name.

The unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic has forced governments around the world to adopt drastic fiscal responses. Moving from relief to stimulus provides an opportunity to avoid carbon-dependent, unjust, and unhealthy investments and to ensure a climate- friendly, and socially and environmentally just recovery.

Covid-19 has shown us the limits of our current socio-economic structure and the neoclassical economics upon which it is based. It is time for the progressive left to put forth a Green New Deal for economic recovery and take on the climate crisis, the economic crisis and the inequalities of our time.

The last few months have been daunting with COVID-19 almost paralyzed the entire world with various countries putting different areas under their jurisdiction in lockdowns. Whether or not the different kinds of approaches have been effective or not, we will know for sure in the coming weeks.