COVID-19 is a global crisis that knows no borders, has impacted billions of lives, battered the global economy and left no company untouched. It’s shown how systemic risks can have exponential impacts, and how unprepared and unresilient our systems can be even for a crisis we know will happen. This all sounds very familiar to those that have long been championing urgent action to the looming global crisis ahead - climate change.
COVID-19 has also shown us that to tackle a global crisis, governments need to come together and companies need to come together for the public good. Leaders have to take extraordinary actions for the bigger cause. We have seen trust in science increase, and we can see - for example through the creation of testing kits, a vaccine, or contact tracing apps - how crucial it is to innovate at scale and speed to find new solutions. Again, all actions we expect will also be critical to tackle the urgent climate crisis.
As we navigate through and ultimately emerge into a post-pandemic world, how we reshape will have key implications for our ability to address climate change this decade:
In summary, companies and countries need to emerge from this crisis stronger, more resilient, and more sustainable than they were before. COVID-19 is not just a shutdown; recovery will take years and the aftershocks will likely fundamentally reshape industries and society. As the economy is re-launched, it is vital that governments and companies alike should build back better, and in doing so are ready to not just face up to the climate crisis, but to beat it.
