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Governments around the world are doubling down on containing the COVID-19 pandemic, showing what a response to a global crisis – also the climate crisis - can and should look like: government action informed by science, individual behavioural change enabling the transformation, and leaving no one behind while focusing on protecting the most vulnerable.

(This article is also available in German)

On 20 September, the German government released its long-awaited climate package. It is nowhere near ambitious enough to meet the objective of the Paris Agreement to limit warming to 1.5°C.

Over two million school kids from 135 countries have participated in the climate strikes this year. The "Fridays for future" movement, initiated by climate activist Greta Thunberg, has boosted discussions on which policy tools can have a tangible effect in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. One of these tools is putting a price on carbon.

(Also available in German)

The Green New Deal (GND) is currently only in the form of a “resolution” introduced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey; any actual legislation that results from the resolution will be taken up by the respective chambers of Congress – and likely will not be done as a whole package. Having said that, the GND is a rare example of proposing how to tackle a societal-scale set of challenges not by looking at individual components but by presenting a vision for the whole system.