The United Nations has said a once-in-a-generation opportunity is being missed to create a sustainable post-pandemic future, after it found less than 20 percent of COVID-19 recovery finances were conceivably "green."

While the novel coronavirus initially led to a drastic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, experts are concerned that the economic recovery is being powered by fossil fuels.

Just 18 percent of planned coronavirus recovery spending could be considered green, the UN's Environment Programme said Wednesday, despite renewable energy being more affordable and scalable than ever. 

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"We are not yet building back better when it comes to recovery spending," said UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen.

"So far global green spending does not match the severity of the three planetary crises of climate change, nature loss and pollution."

The report, carried out with researchers at the University of Oxford, showed that only $341 billion of the $1.9 trillion in future coronavirus recovery funds announced by 50 major economies had been set aside for green projects.

According to the analysis, just 2.5 percent of the coronavirus rescue and recovery spending in 2020 was green, as CGTN's graphic shows.

Some European nations, like Spain and Germany, received praise in the report for subsidizing renewable energy projects. France and Britain were also commended for their commitment to increase energy efficiency through retrofitting buildings.

"There are clearly some leading countries that are taking green recovery seriously," said Brian O'Callaghan, lead researcher at the Oxford University Economic Recovery Project.

"Unfortunately, the vast majority of countries are not and there is a long way to go."

The report singled out the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Australia for planning more oil and gas exploration, while China and India were criticized for announcing additional domestic coal plans.

According to Isabel Hilton, founder of nonprofit news organisation China Dialogue, China is aiming to become a global leader in "low-carbon tech for a carbon-constrained world" as it unveils its new five-year plan.

The shift could likely include an accelerated pullback from financing new coal-fired power plants, aiding China's target of becoming carbon-neutral by 2060.

O'Callaghan added that hopefully as governments moved from rescue packages to recovery, more would look more to renewables and nature preservation.

The UN says emissions have to drop by nearly 7 percent this decade if the Paris climate deal's temperature goals are to be achieved.

However, the report found that green spending had been "incommensurate with the scale of ongoing environmental crises. A one-dimensional focus on short-term economic recovery risks further exacerbating long-term social and environmental crises," it said.

The report also cautioned that if structural inequality was ignored in the recovery spending, it could push back against decades of progress against poverty in developing nations.