The state of Kerala, India took early action and involved the entire population in taking measures to help contain the virus (Kerala’s population being almost 100% literate made it easier to raise awareness of the problem among citizens, and for them to take up guidance on how to deal with it). The countries that have been most successful in stemming the spread of COVID-19 have been those where leaders have made citizens instrumental in the response. And charting this path must be a collective effort, driven by leaders, decision -makers and ordinary citizens alike. The path towards the new normal must be clean and green. When we begin to move towards post-COVID recovery, the challenge will be to get back the qualities of life we had before, but without returning to the old polluting ways that brought us the problem in the first place. The sudden and dramatic downturn in carbon-emitting activity has shown us that we can indeed cleanse and rebuild our natural environment, if we wish to do so. Since the COVID-19 lockdown and the closing of polluting industries and transport networks, we have seen clear skies emerge and natural habitats be restored. The path to a ‘new normal’ must be clean and green The new normal must value science and recognise the city’s essential workers, tasked with actioning the guidance that comes from it. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought two major revelations: first, the importance of listening to the science and being quick to respond with action accordingly second, highlighting society’s most essential workers, namely health practitioners and other key local community leadership workers who provide us with food and other essential items on which our lives depend. Listen to science, and value key workers who apply it And we must be prepared to work across divides, to build bridges between the rich and poor, to work through ethnic and religious differences. And as we strengthen global solidarity, we must also enhance solidarity within local geographies, where the needs and priorities of all citizens are listened to and acted on. This calls for a collective, global effort to prioritise and improve solidarity across all countries, with a specific commitment to be inclusive of the most vulnerable. As with the virus, so with climate change: the impacts do not recognise geographical borders, no country is immune. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it powerfully clear that no country can isolate itself from a global emergency. Here, drawing on lessons from the ground, we share some ways forward that will help the world shift to a better new normal in a post-COVID world: And, looking ahead, we need to apply this ‘new normal’ in our approach to tackling the climate emergency - for our planetary crisis continues to escalate the climate-related disasters causing death, disease and displacement aren’t taking a break simply because a global pandemic has taken hold. In the immediate term, we need to adopt a new (and better) normal to deal with the pandemic. The rapid spread of COVID-19 to almost every nation brings the recognition that we need to abandon the old, normal way of dealing with global crises. The urban poor in towns and cities across the world are hit particularly hard. While the impacts of the coronavirus are still playing out, the lockdown policies to bring the virus under control are wreaking havoc on the communities where we and our partners work. One of us represents millions of slum dwellers in hundreds of cities across the global South the other, researchers and university academics in the world’s Least Developed Countries. To mark Earth Day 2020, and the global call to act on climate change, Saleemul Huq of ICCCAD and Sheela Patel of SPARC India ask: what lessons can we apply from the pandemic response to help tackle other global crises, including the climate emergency? This post first appeared on īoth Sheela and I have collaborated with others for many years on how to support the most vulnerable communities in some of the most vulnerable developing countries to pursue locally led action to adapt to climate change.
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