As COVID-19 took its toll on lives and livelihoods, climate change was also altering daily life worldwide, with heat waves, droughts, wildfires, record rainstorms, and ruinous floods. The trillions of dollars devoted to pandemic economic stimulus by the world’s richest countries show that financing can be found to grapple with serious issues when political will is mustered, as it needs to be for climate as least as much as COVID-19. We need the will to battle COVID-19 and the climate crisis both, building toward a future for humanity that works with nature, not against it; that is broad-based and inclusive; and that is driven by creative ideas, clear goals, and urgent timelines. Twenty such ideas are presented in this report, which also advances a strategy to promote timely, effective, and global joint action, beginning with the United Nations and G20, to help build a broad consensus on, and then set out to build, a future that is healthy, sustainable, and leaves no one behind.
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