To combat the economic and social turmoil caused by Covid-19, a sustainability-led approach is vital to create resilient societies for the future
The world today is not equal. The United Nations' 2030 Sustainability Development Goals envision a sustainable and equitable world, where everyone has access to basic needs, healthcare, education, and more, and the opportunity to reach their fullest potential. Illustration by: Sameer Pawar
We have been here before. The Spanish Flu, Black Death, two World Wars. And we have bounced back. Whether it was 9/11, or 26/11 closer to home, human resilience has always found a way to live with new, albeit cautious, realities.
Here’s one of our current realities: Look out your window and bluer skies will look back at you; the air is cleaner. A new study in Nature Climate Change journal has found that, compared to 2019, global carbon emissions fell 17 percent between this January and April due to the global lockdowns. It takes us closer to achieving Climate Action (SDG 13) and Life on Land (SDG 15), two of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which look to address by 2030 a set of global challenges that we face.
While the novel coronavirus has infected 55 lakh globally (over 1.5 lakh in India) and killed nearly 3.5 lakh, one of its unmissable, perhaps unintended too, gains has been the drop in pollution levels. India, too, witnessed its carbon emissions fall for the first time in four decades. But, as far as silver linings go, that’s about it.
Beyond the obvious public health crisis, Covid-19 has laid bare a number of invisible fault lines that threaten our social fabric—the lack of health care, public and welfare distribution systems, or the vulnerability of the underprivileged (SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions).
Those in vulnerable categories—like your domestic help—find themselves without basic necessities such as money (SDG 1: No Poverty), food (SDG 2: No Hunger), soap and clean water (SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitisation). The crisis has affected their children’s education (SDG 4: Quality Education), and their ability to keep a roof over their head (SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities).