Experts call pandemic a window into future climate threats

The coronavirus pandemic is a preview of the types of global health threats that will emerge as the planet becomes hotter, and how it is tackled has implications for dealing with climate threats as well, health experts said.

“With Covid-19, we can see the urgency of it more readily than some of the impacts of the climate crisis,” said Mandeep Dhaliwal, director for HIV, health and development for the United Nations Development Programme on Tuesday.

But in both cases, “we will not be able to ignore anymore that we need to do something about the human activity that’s driving this,” she said during an online panel, part of this week’s Skoll Forum on Social Entrepreneurship.

Growing destruction of forests and farming expansion are both driving climate change and bringing people into closer contact with wild animal diseases, Dhaliwal said.

Without addressing underlying factors making the pandemic so destructive, the world will “keep lurching from outbreak to outbreak”, she warned.

Dr David Nabarro, a special envoy to the World Health Organization on the pandemic, said about a third of the world’s countries were on lockdown.

That was forcing leaders into “awful political tradeoffs” between protecting lives and keeping economies functioning, he said.

The crisis also showed how overcoming disasters required strong

Once we realise health is, as you say, an apex goal for humanity ... then perhaps we can weave together all we’re doing on sustainable development.

Dr David Nabarro

communities and how political leaders need to grasp the intricate connections of the planet’s life systems, he added.

“Once we realise health is, as you say, an apex goal for humanity – not just health now but health in coming generations – then perhaps we can weave together all we’re doing on sustainable development,” Dr Nabarro said on the panel.

But Liz Diebold, who helps make investments for the Skoll Foundation, which supports social change and businesses for good, said the virus offered some positive lessons for climate action.

“Covid-19 is really showing us when humanity is united in a common cause, phenomenally rapid change is possible,” she said, even on seemingly intractable problems.