The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant and potentially long-lasting impacts on economies and societies worldwide. Globally, COVID-19 has had the most profound impact on vulnerable developing countries, communities and people, impeding both sustainable development and efforts to build resilience to climate change. Worldwide, more than 100 million more people are expected to join those already living in extreme poverty and global poverty is expected to rise in 2020 after decades of successful alleviation efforts (IMF, 2020). The pandemic has stretched already overwhelmed budgets and diverted resources away from climate action to respond to an acute social, health and economic crisis. While COVID-19 is an acute, but hopefully short-lived crisis, the spectre of catastrophic climate change looms as a long-lasting challenge. In the midst of our response to and recovery from the pandemic, we must not side line efforts to minimise the long-term impacts of climate change. Indeed, we must use the crisis as an opportunity to reset our level of ambition, ensuring that, aligned with the Paris Agreement, we both speed up and scale up the climate action so urgently needed.

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