The Lancet Planetary Health

Authors: Robin Fears, William Gillett, Andy Haines, Michael Norton, Volker ter Meulen

Open Access Published: September, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(20)30176-5

Summary

The spread of COVID-19 is continuing to present enormous challenges worldwide, affecting individuals, families, communities, health services, and economies. Much now depends on curbing the pandemic, combined with the gradual resumption of economic and social activity. Meanwhile, the world is in the middle of another crisis, the climate change emergency. There is a choice to be made in guiding the economic recovery from COVID-19. Either societies continue high-carbon pathways that present considerable risks to health and development, or they seek low-carbon socioeconomic pathways to invest differently for the long term to protect and promote human health and to enhance the prospects for a recovery compatible with the commitments in the Paris Climate Agreement.