Imagine if six months ago you knew that the coronavirus pandemic was coming, yet you still had to keep making plans for the future that you knew inevitably would be completely disrupted. This is how many young people feel about planning their lives while staying acutely aware of the reality of the climate crisis. Over the past six months COVID-19 has monopolized the attention of governments, institutions, the media and a lot of human headspace. This has come at the neglect of other global issues, such as the climate crisis. The loss of attention and effort to fight the climate crisis is a cost that humanity cannot afford to bear. The COP26 has been delayed, bringing international negotiations to a halt. The danger of delaying COP is that economic recovery plans are less likely to further countries’ climate goals. COVID-19 presents a distinct opportunity to pave the way for a just recovery. Countries have the ability to enact stimulus plans that incorporate climate change strategies and governments could even use the leverage they have to provide bailouts to shift towards decarbonization. We are seeing calls from academics to not bailout the oil and gas industry and tie conditions to bailouts in the airline industry.
Another danger of not paying adequate attention to the climate crisis is the weakening and ignorance of climate policies. With COVID-19 in the limelight, dirty emitters and governments are able to take a few steps back in the fight against climate change without being worried about the uproar this may inflict because no one is paying attention. For example, between the months of January-April, deforestation in the Amazon has increased by 55%. A year ago, this would have been front page news. Now it is not even an afterthought. Another example of weakening of climate policies is the rollback of U.S. environmental measures. The EPA announced that it will temporarily “exercise enforcement discretion” with regards to violation of environmental laws, claiming this flexibility of executive authority is a result of COVID-19. Unsurprisingly, Trump has effectively used the pandemic as a cover to weaken environmental regulations and has been able to go unnoticed doing so.
The obvious result of this lack of government attention is less money going into climate resilience and renewable energy. Governments should be setting up progressive social policies right now to help those affected by the pandemic, but fighting COVID-19 and climate change is NOT mutually exclusive. Countries should be using the pandemic as an opportunity to rebuild their societies to be more resilient for the next global crisis. Germany’s $145 billion stimulus plan devotes about one third to public transportation and renewable energy, and France has invested in electric vehicle manufacturing. Canada’s relief packages have so far have yet to be green focused, and that will come at a large cost to Canadians.
“To understand the kind of damage that climate change will inflict, look at COVID-19 and spread the pain out over a much longer period” writes philanthropist and technocrat Bill Gates in his recent article about climate change. Gates argues that the loss of life and economic misery caused by this pandemic are a glimpse of what the future will hold if we do not take serious steps to decrease carbon emissions. Despite both being threats we do not see commensurate action.
Climate change and coronavirus are fundamentally different problems, but they have some striking similarities. They both pose a massive threat to humanity and the economy, and living with the realities of them requires a massive behavioural shift. These similarities can help us learn lessons from COVID-19 and guide our much-needed response to the climate crisis. Primarily we have seen the consequences and cost of inaction, the importance of science and innovation, and the disproportionate suffering of poor and marginalized communities and countries. COVID-19 sucks, but climate change will be a lot worse if we do not push play on international and local efforts to fight it.