Interesting point given that the pandemic has increased the use of single use items, many made of plastic to unprecedented levels.
Demand for public transport has also fallen away despite increases since the recovery from the last recession because people now prefer to travel in private cars.

It is a good idea to use the pandemic as a kind of "reset button" for green issues, but we have to understand that the current trend is in some cases to move away from previously improving habits.
One step backwards to take two steps forward maybe?

 

Yes the biggest loser is public transport like buses, coaches, trains, etc where social distancing is hard to maintain.
Which for decades has been seen as one of the vital ingredients for reducing the number of cars on the road
especially in cities.

I reckon the Transport Secretary is hoping that people will forsake public transport for the bicycle or the e-bike
or the electric scooter as a healthier and environmentally friendly alternative to the car and waxed lyrical
about the surge in bicycling ( in his COBR charts yesterday ) following the lockdowns; even to the extent of the
government encouraging the trend by introducing 'money off cycle repair vouchers' to get people back
on their bikes again.

Makes one wonder whether there's been significant upticks in other countries for cycling or the new e-bikes
and electric scooters in recent months as well during the crisis ?

 

It might be worth pointing out that Spain was expected to approve the "Plan MOVES 2020" on Tuesday which would have provided grants and other financial aids to the purchase of electric vehicles, charging infrastructure and other supposedly green mobility solutions by giving access to an already approved fund of 65m€.
But unannounced and unexpectedly, the measures were not approved. Nobody seemingly knows why or how long the the approval is to be delayed.

 

That's not new. Even before the virus the EU had announced many of those moves. All they're doing is moving forward some things. Repackaging others.

You also need to put things into prospecitive.

The US has already announced,passed into law and more or less spent two trillion dollars.

The EU "mega" plan is for €750 billion over four years.

The EU is bigger than the US. Had a weaker economy before this. Is facing a deflationary spiral that will likely be worse.

 

Here's a bit of good news, for Spain anyway.

https://english.elpais.com/society/...0-06-03/spain-planning-to-raise-724-million-with-new-plastic-packaging-tax.html

The Spanish Cabinet on Tuesday approved a draft law that introduces a new tax on plastic waste, among other environmental measures. The indirect levy will tax the manufacture, import or acquisition of non-reusable plastic packaging from other European Union countries for use in the Spanish market, according to the Spanish Ministry for Ecological Transition.

The ministry said that the proposed tax is similar to what other countries such as the United Kingdom and Italy are planning to introduce. It would require payment of €0.45 for every kilogram of plastic packaging, and is expected to bring in annual revenue of close to €724 million, based on 2017 figures.

 

Whilst we might wish for change, history tells us that change whether social or economic after disasters of various kinds is nearly always temporary. The post- 1945 social and economic liberalisation lasted a mere thirty years before Thatcher took us back to the 1930s or some might say back to Victorian times.

As the French say, 'Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose'.