PUBLIC POLICIES FOR CRISIS MANAGEMENT: LESSONS LEARNED FROM COVID-19 ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic is one of the greatest challenges facing societies in modern history. The crisis has had a severe impact on health systems and the global economy, the effects of which will be felt for many years after the pandemic ends. Although at first glance the Covid-19 pandemic does not seem to have much in common with the world’s climate change, the essential analysis suggests that the two phenomena have many similarities given the big picture of these two serious challenges to humanity. Namely, the pandemic and climate change have a strong resemblance: both are major threats that cause damage to societies globally. The most serious effects can be prevented only if states commit to serious and early action in the face of a seemingly abstract threat. The pandemic is a remarkable, albeit very unfavourable, opportunity to learn very difficult lessons in dealing with a crisis. The pandemic and climate change are potentially devastating global problems requiring rapid government intervention. Although this intervention inevitably creates losers, in both cases it must be decisive and based on social consensus. However, if the authorities make an assessment, in the long run, which of these two severe and serious crises will be easier to deal with, it is believed that it will be the Covid-19 pandemic2. Climate change seems to be much harder to defeat globally because of its nature, but also because of the longer period available to deal with it. The present paper aims to analyze the relationship between the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change, i.e., the degree of impact of Covid-19 on climate change, and the possibilities of response by the competent authorities with appropriate policies in dealing with climate change, as a result of the learned lessons from dealing with the pandemic during the first year of its onset.