Page 104 - COVID-19: The Great Reset

therefore can only be properly addressed in a globally coordinated
fashion; and 5) they affect disproportionately the already most

vulnerable countries and segments of the population.

And what are their dissimilarities? There are several, most of
which are of a conceptual and methodological nature (like a
pandemic being a contagion risk while climate change and
ecosystem collapse are accumulation risks), but the two that

matter the most are: 1) the time-horizon difference (it has a critical
bearing on policies and mitigating actions); and 2) the causality
problem (it makes public acceptance of the mitigation strategies

more difficult):

1. Pandemics are a quasi-instantaneous risk, whose
imminence and danger are visible to all. An outbreak
threatens our survival – as individuals or a species – and
we therefore respond immediately and with determination

when faced with the risk. By contrast, climate change and
nature loss are gradual and cumulative, with effects that
are discernible mostly in the medium and long term (and
despite more and more climate related and “exceptional”

nature loss events, there are still significant numbers who
remain unconvinced of the immediacy of the climate crisis).
This crucial difference between the respective time-
horizons of a pandemic and that of climate change and

nature loss means that a pandemic risk requires immediate
action that will be followed by a rapid result, while climate
change and nature loss also require immediate action, but
the result (or “future reward”, in the jargon of economists)

will only follow with a certain time lag. Mark Carney, former
Governor of the Bank of England who is now the UN
Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance, has
observed that this problem of time asynchronicity

generates a “tragedy of the horizon”: contrary to immediate
and observable risks, climate change risks may seem
distant (in terms of time and geography), in which case
they will not be responded to with the gravity they deserve

and demand. As an example, the material risk that global
warming and rising waters pose for a physical asset (like a

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