A tale of two crises
Jochen Markard (SusTec) and Daniel Rosenbloom (University of Toronto) argue that the response to the coronavirus outbreak also offers an opportunity to advance the climate agenda. Indeed, given that we have scarce resources at our disposal, it is essential that we synergize such efforts.
In their Download policy brief, the authors propose two primary policy strategies: (1) harnessing the disruptive forces of the COVID-19 pandemic to accelerate the decline of carbon-intensive industries, technologies, and practices, and (2) leveraging responses to drive low-carbon innovation. In the article, the authors lay out five principles of Sustainability Transition Policy: i) target both innovation and decline, ii) tailor policies to transition phases, iii) develop context sensitive policies, iv) watch out for dead-end pathways, v) account for politics. The article is part of a Download special issue in Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy edited by Maurie Cohen.