Climate change and development in Africa Post COVID-19: some critical reflections - Discussion paper

The World is currently in the throes of an unprecedented health and economic crisis brought on by the global spread of the novel corona virus induced Covid-19. Covid-19 has already infected millions of people worldwide, with tens of thousands of fatalities. The globalized and interconnected nature of our society and economy have quickly morphed a public health event into a global political, economic, psychological and social crisis of epic proportions. Public health systems across the board have been strained beyond existing capacities, revealing the vulnerabilities of the world’s populations to a pandemic. The Covid-19 pandemic has also wrought havoc on economies as a result of the shutting down of almost all economic activities as part of the effort to contain the spread of the virus. The long term effects and impacts of the pandemic are still being assessed and will be felt for many years after the pandemic itself. It is already forecast that there will be no growth in 2020 and 2021, and global GDP will recover to pre-Covid-19 levels only in 2022.