COVID is like climate change, but sped up 100 times.

I’m exaggerating of course, but the parallels between these great societal challenges are striking. We would be remiss not to use the lessons of COVID - happening in real time, and front and centre there for all to see - to inform our thinking about responding to climate change.

COVID, like climate change is deadly. It damages and kills people, but not equally. COVID, like climate change, affects the already disadvantaged the most.

For example, we know for COVID the greatest risk factor is age but here in the UK you are at significantly greater risk if you are poor, or if you are from an ethnic minority.

We know now that the *response* to the pandemic shapes the outcome. Countries that reacted early and strongly to the threat of the pandemic have fared best so far.

Countries that reacted sluggishly, or without enough force and social cohesion have seen higher numbers of cases and higher death tolls.

For example, for a disease doubling in the population every 3-4 days (as in the early part of the pandemic here in the UK), a week’s delay multiplies the total number of cases and therefore deaths by four.

We’re learning all the time about the disease. The science response to the threat has been genuinely amazing. This is also true of climate.

Clear and transparent communication of what we know (the science), is incredibly important. Not having that is scary.

Watching what happens in other countries ahead of us in the cases curve has given us the opportunity to learn from them (or not).

Early strong action might feel like overreaction, but it gives a society more time to learn, adapt and mitigate, and there’s less to adapt to.

We’re incredibly adaptable as a society, and we can marshall great resources to solve problems. Individuals across the world have endured incredible hardships to help each other, the vulnerable, and everybody around them.

Both COVID and climate change are problems that we solve together, or not at all.