Balancing Health, Economy and Climate Risk in a Multi-Crisis

Jatin Nathwani, Niels Lind, Ortwin Renn and Hans Joachim Schellnhuber
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Jatin Nathwani: Department of Management Science & Civil and Environmental Engineering, Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
Niels Lind: Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
Ortwin Renn: Institute for Advanced Sustainability Science, IASS, Berliner Str. 130, 14467 Potsdam, Germany
Hans Joachim Schellnhuber: Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), P.O. Box 60 12 03, 14412 Potsdam, Germany

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 14, 1-13

Abstract: In the presence of a global pandemic (COVID-19), the relentless pressure on global decision-makers is to ensure a balancing of health (reduce mortality impacts), economic goals (income for livelihood sustenance), and environmental sustainability (stabilize GHG emissions long term). The global energy supply system is a dominant contributor to the GHG burden and deeply embedded in the economy with its current share of 85%, use of fossil fuels has remained unchanged over 3 decades. A unique approach is presented to harmonizing the goals of human safety, economic development, and climate risk, respectively, through an operational tool that provides clear guidance to decision-makers in support of policy interventions for decarbonization. Improving climate change performance as an integral part of meeting human development goals allows the achievement of a country’s environmental, social, and economic well-being to be tracked and monitored. A primary contribution of this paper is to allow a transparent accounting of national performance highlighting the goals of enhancing human safety in concert with mitigation of climate risks. A measure of a country’s overall performance, combined as the Development and Climate Change Performance Index (DCI), is derived from two standardized indexes, the development index H and the Climate Change Performance Index CCPI. Data are analyzed for 55 countries comprising 65 percent of the world’s population. Through active management and monitoring, the proposed DCI can illustrate national performance to highlight a country’s current standing, rates of improvement over time, and a historical profile of progress of nations by bringing climate risk mitigation and economic well-being into better alignment.

Keywords: pandemic (COVID-19) health impacts; energy system emissions; economic well-being; social cost of carbon emissions; climate risk (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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