As countries are engaging in record-breaking fiscal spending in response to the COVID-19 pandemic ($14 trillion as of January 2021), a variety of tools has been developed to attain an overview not only of the economic, but also of the environmental impact of COVID-19 response measures. These self-designated Green Recovery trackers shed light onto whether countries live up to the promises of pursuing a Green Recovery and thus provide an empirical basis to this highly salient debate.

This brief reviews and analyses 13 different Green Recovery “tracking” tools. It explains how these tools work, what their limitations are, and elaborates on how they can contribute to efforts towards building a climate-neutral, environmentally sustainable, and socially just world.