Sustainability – Dealing with Activism and Climate Change

Sustainability – Dealing with Activism and Climate Change

Global GDP is expected to shrink by more than 5% (World Bank, June 2020) as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, making it one of the four most severe downturns of the last 150 years. How will governments and citizens respond to this economic crisis, which, according to the IMF, will have the greatest impact on low-income households? Even before Covid-19 governments had begun to adopt more nationalist policies, led by the example of the "America First" policies of the US president. In future some may prioritize efforts to recoup their economic losses and neglect the sustainability agenda as 'unaffordable' . Citizens on the other hand may respond to the Covid-19 crisis by becoming more self-sufficient, less focused on consumption and less reliant on the benefits that global trade had previously brought. Not all initial signs are encouraging: some countries are becoming less neighbourly and less inclined to co-operate on, for example, the distribution of vaccine treatments, for fear that they will have to hand over vaccine to other countries rather than issue vaccines to their own people. However the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions as a consequence of lockdowns was remarkable. This interactive 90-minute online course looks ahead to how the sustainability agenda may develop and considers the pluses and minuses for sustainability playing a greater role in public, corporate and private life.