The coronavirus pandemic has led to all kinds of novel political calculations. Climate change needs even better ones, says an observer.
Almost every country has answered these questions differently, with measures ranging from total lockdown to contact tracing, widespread testing to business as usual. These have seen varying degrees of success, of course, and varying degrees of public support for those measures.
Trees are engulfed in flames as a bushfire spreads in Adaminaby, New South Wales, Australia, on Jan 9, 2020, in this still image from a video. The threat of climate change in this sense is a different one, and emergency measures are just a bit harder to sell.2. A SUITE OF POSSIBLE MEASURES With COVID-19, unilateral national action can work. Quickly closing off borders is actually possible, and if New Zealand’s experience is anything to go by, can be effective.
And if we think – or we’re led to think – that others aren’t doing their part for international response, major domestic mitigation efforts are that much harder to sell domestically.With COVID-19, we’re protecting ourselves and those closest to us. COVID-19 can immediately and directly affect us, family members and fellow citizens, which is how extraordinary policy measures can be justified and sold.
READ: Commentary: Rising temperatures, fires and floods highlight importance of understanding weather extremesIn all these ways, climate change poses more profound challenges for policy and politics than COVID-19. That’s even assuming that policymakers have the political will to try to address climate change.
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