Building a social mandate for climate action: lessons from COVID-19

Journal article

The COVID-19 imposed lockdown has led to a number of temporary environmental side effects (reduced global emissions, cleaner air, less noise), that the climate community has aspired to achieve over a number of decades. However, these benefits have been achieved at a massive cost to welfare and the economy. This commentary draws lessons from the COVID-19 crisis for climate change. It discusses whether there are more sustainable ways of achieving these benefits, as part of a more desirable, low carbon resilient future, in a more planned, inclusive and less disruptive way. In order to achieve this, we argue for a clearer social contract between citizens and the state. We discuss how COVID-19 has demonstrated that behaviours can change abruptly, that these changes come at a cost, that we need a 'social mandate' to ensure these changes remain in the long-term, and that science plays an important role in informing this process. We suggest that deliberative engagement mechanisms, such as citizens' assemblies and juries, could be a powerful way to build a social mandate for climate action post-COVID-19. This would enable behaviour changes to become more accepted, embedded and bearable in the long-term and provide the basis for future climate action.

Authors: Howarth, C; Bryant, P; Corner, A; Fankhauser, S; Gouldson, A

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Springer
• Journal: Environmental and Resource Economics
• Volume: 76
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 1107–1115
• Publication date: 2020-07-08
• Acceptance date: 2020-07-03
• DOI: 10.1007/s10640-020-00446-9
• EISSN: 1573-1502
• ISSN: 0924-6460
• Pmid: 32836829
• Language: English
• Keywords: behaviour change; deliberative governance; FFR; climate change; COVID-19; social mandate