How COVID forced the planet’s luckiest raincheck
But commitments are one thing. Delivery is another.
To give you a sense of the challenge to deliver necessary emissions cuts, remember that in 2020 the pandemic temporarily shuttered billions of businesses around the world. As offices, factories and vehicles fell idle, global CO2 emissions fell by about 7 per cent.
Now imagine this: the UN says that if we are to keep the increase in temperatures to below 1.5 degrees, we will need to cut emissions by that same amount every single year for the next decade.
We can’t achieve those cuts by shutting down the world economy again. Instead, we will have to remake the global economy through a green industrial transition that will change the way we live and work.
COVID did the climate another favour by kickstarting important elements of that transition. The crisis forced governments to stimulate their economies, creating an opportunity for smart leaders to spend up big on climate measures….
