Learning from the COVID-19 pandemic: How to better prepare for the next global crisis.

One and a half years after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the “gloom-and-doom” predictions of world-wide recession, major disruptions in international trade, and rapidly rising unemployment appear to have been exaggerated. The 2008/2009 financial crisis had a much more negative impact on the economy than either a “typical” recession or past “modern” pandemics. The world’s economic system seems more resilient to health crises than to financial crises. The policy questions we wish to address here relate to another crisis confronting the world: the climate crisis. Will the global economy prove as resilient to the climate crisis as it has to the COVID-19 pandemic? Will a similar lasting inequality also result from the impact of the climate crisis