Climate change, covid, and political will

In a Republik article on their campaign to get an Advisory Opinion on climate change from the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Solomon Yeo of Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change argues that, despite decades of political resistance to effective measures to combat climate change, the covid pandemic has shown that where there is political will, anything is possible. But while the initial responses of many governments worldwide may somewhat justify Yeo's hope for movement on an effective political response to climate change, the current situation with the pandemic, in which many governments seem to have given in to the coronavirus for short-term economic reasons, is much less encouraging. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 1 September 2022)