Will the Ukraine War Upend the Sustainability Agenda?

To prevent the sustainability agenda from becoming a casualty of Russia’s war on Ukraine, policymakers and citizens must recognize the imperatives raised by the crisis and adjust their strategies accordingly. That means making our approach to environmental, social, and governance issues both more holistic and more granular.

PARIS – Beyond the immense tragedy which Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war has brought upon Ukraine and its people, we are starting to grasp its potentially devastating consequences for the global sustainability agenda.

Already, the COVID-19 pandemic redirected global attention and resources away from the targets enshrined in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, as countries focused on their immediate public-health needs. Now, Putin’s war is intensifying the economic, social, and geopolitical pressures countries face, while deepening divisions among them. This does not bode well for efforts to address the shared challenge of climate change.

Read the entire article on the site of Project Syndicate.