Creating Social Co-benefits for Sustainable and Just Society

We live in an age of extremes. Significant disasters, including most the recent COVID-19 pandemic, have changed the way we understand risk and vulnerability. The heatwaves we experience each year brings temperatures that continue to break records; what makes the situation worse is that extreme weather and related risks are predicted to become more intense and frequent with climate change. These growing risks threaten human life and public health. Even more worrying is that those most adversely affected by these risks tend to be vulnerable groups of people, i.e., the elderly or workers in low-income jobs. Not surprisingly, this situation also tends to be most grave in less developed countries where there is generally a greater dependence on local natural resources.