ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed almost every single aspect of our lives. Therefore, this chapter investigates what role climate change played in the responses of the governments of the Republic of Korea, Japan, the UK, Ireland, and Sri Lanka to COVID-19 and the economic crisis that the pandemic led to. The analysis shows that, despite the fact that all states mentioned climate change in some official governmental documents and speeches on COVID-19, none of them announced any consequences for their national health adaptation strategies. In terms of climate change mitigation, the UK, Japan, and the Republic of Korea (RoK) emphasized on synergies between economic recovery measures and climate change mitigation, but only the RoK introduced a massive green recovery program. Confirming the general findings on diffusion processes in the RoK as presented in Chapter 10 of this book, the RoK’s green recovery program was largely influenced by the international community, especially since it was built after the European Green Deal.
