Planet under Pressure

RESILIENCE
How does resilience work in
practice?
The answers to these questions will be
crucial in determining the strategies for
the post–Covid-19 world.
1. Economy
The main issue now is to realign supply
chains. Many experts suspect that there
will be a de-globalization. Production
will move closer to the sales markets
again. It is no longer a question of “just
in time,” but also “just in case.” However,
we must not forget the consequences for
workers in developing countries who
could be affected by de-globalization. The
American economist Barry Eichengreen
therefore warns: “But this is a small
problem compared to the impact on
labor. In other words, while there has
been no destruction of physical capital
in the pandemic, the risk of damage to
human capital is significant.”
2. Society
An exclusive interview with EU Commissioner
Paolo Gentiloni, who is responsible
for economic affairs as well as
the SDGs, highlights the link between
society, economy, and the environment.
We talk about state opportunities, global
interdependencies, and the dilemma
of sustainability as a community and
generational task.
The state and its international communities
play the leading role in absorbing
external shocks, writes Markus Engels,
Secretary-General of the Global Solutions
Initiative, in his essay. But for the
future, we need a debate about what
kind of protections we want to retain
for basic rights following this crisis. The
good news is: Populist heads of state and
government are part of the problem, not
the solution.
In a White Paper, The Zukunftsinstitut
describes four possible scenarios of how
the corona crisis
can transform the world. They are based
on two central basic coordinates that
describe the possible directions of development:
Successful relationships versus
unsuccessful relationships (optimistic
versus pessimistic), and local versus
global (disconnected versus connected).
This brings us to the important point that
crises not only change systems, but also
the people in the system. If acceleration
is the problem, then the solution, argues
the well-known sociologist Hartmut Rosa,
lies in “resonance.” The quality of a
human life cannot be measured simply
in terms of resources, options, and moments
of happiness, Rosa explains in an
interview in this Yearbook. Instead, we
must consider our resonance with the
world. Resonance and resilience can
perhaps be used synonymously.
3. Agenda 2030
What will be the new normal? What
will happen after corona? These are
frequently asked questions, but they do
not go far enough.
We had better ask ourselves: What are the
principles that will organize the future?
Guiding ideas such as “just transition” or
“leave no one behind” continue to play
an important role in this context. From
a sustainability perspective, “keep it up”
cannot be an option. Climate change,
planetary overexploitation, and a lack
of distributive justice speak against it.
From a transformation point of view, the
moment when there is less stability is
the moment when there is a potential
for much deeper and stronger change.
Everybody feels that the future is much
more open than it used to be. How that
moment of instability is used depends
on who is putting forward what kind of
ideas, who has influence, and who gets
more to say and to decide. A very vivid
panel discussion with Emily Auckland
(UKSSD), Julian Hill-Landolt (WBCSD),
Maja Goepel (Scientists for Future), and
Pietro Bertazzi (CDP) clearly shows the
connection between sustainability, crisis,
reconstruction, and pitfalls.
4. Global megatrends
What is important in all of this is that
we not only grasp the current crisis, but
also think about the other existing crises
and the coming crises. Only then will
our future be resilient.
a) Loss of biodiversity
Recent UN reports show that 1,000,000
species are threatened with extinction.
The IPBES Chair, Sir Robert Watson, says:
“The health of ecosystems on which we
and all other species depend is deteriorating
more rapidly than ever. We are
eroding the very foundations of our
economies, livelihoods, food security,
health, and quality of life worldwide.”
This has an economic aspect: According
to UN studies, the monetary value of
goods and services provided by ecosystems
is estimated to amount to about
$33 trillion per year. The other aspect is
health: As habitat and biodiversity losses
increase globally, the novel coronavirus
outbreak may be just the beginning of
mass pandemics, says John Vidal. In >>
Global Goals Yearbook 2020
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