Now What ? Climate Change & Coronavirus

Abstract

Ipsos Global Trends, our study of 33,000 people every three years, recently found climate emergency to be the strongest common value that unites us worldwide. Eighty percent globally think we are heading for environmental disaster unless we change our habits quickly. Months later, the world stands united towards a different, more immediate crisis: COVID-19. In a matter of weeks, COVID-19 has brought the global economy to its knees and the lives we once knew as ‘normal’ have been turned on their head. Climate change discussions and decision-making have been put on hold while governments, industry and people everywhere come together to combat a global pandemic. Recent Ipsos Earth Day data found that concern over climate change is still high globally, despite attention being focused on the more urgent crisis at hand. Seventy one percent of the world feels climate change is as significant a threat as COVID-19 in the long term.1 In the midst of this upheaval, we ask what, if anything, can COVID-19 teach us about the climate crisis? 1. The trajectory of climate crisis concern in the months preceding COVID-19 2. Analogous learnings between both crises from experts 3. The influence of the pandemic on public attitudes and behaviours around climate change 4. Support for a greener economic transition following the pandemic 5. Implications and recommendations for key industry players moving forward