The global pandemic and resulting economic shock will have implications for every issue in public policy, including climate change. In the next few months, government investment in clean energy and infrastructure and bailouts for high-carbon industries will be positioned as a necessary economic stimulus. In the medium term, climate advocates need to develop saleable plans for long-term recovery. 

Niskanen’s director of climate policy, Dr. Joseph Majkut, climate policy associate Nader Sobhani, and Niskanen’s director of government affairs, Kodiak Hill-Davis, will discuss how COVID-19 reveals how poorly our society has prepared itself for predictable risks, and how poorly-designed policy can impede an effective response. It is essential that both climate advocates and skeptics learn from this experience and commit to not repeating mistakes in their own domain.