ABSTRACT
The climate change crisis is the existential challenge of our time. The future of the planet and the survival of all living things depends on our collective effort to arrest global temperature increases, for that will determine the sustainability of all life. Severe weather events linked to climate change underscored the effects of rising temperatures on the planet. Humanity’s impact on the planet’s temperature, the ‘hockey stick’ jump visible in long-run climate data, from ice cores, is firmly established and well known. Economics needs to serve the planet, shake off adherence to erroneous worship of neoliberal tropes, and recognize that economics and the economy must serve society’s goals. In confronting climate change, strong leadership is the sine qua non. The pandemic has demonstrated the importance of national and international coordination and cooperation. The climate crisis also requires us to recognize this inbuilt evolutionary fairness and social requirement in climate change policy, nationally and internationally.
