European governments face a two-fold challenge: they need to mitigate the negative consequences of the Corona pandemic and meet the increased climate protection requirements imposed on them by the tightening of targets through the European Green Deal. This raises the question to which extent political measures can serve both economic recovery and climate protection. By prioritising urgent public investment to address infrastructure deficits and smart policy instruments to incentivise climate-friendly action the German government enables the private sector to recover and develop sustainable business models.