Environmental Analysis and the Dual Grand Challenge of COVID-19 and Sustainable Development

In 2015, the United Nations (UN) adopted the 2030 Agenda with 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to improve people’s lives and the natural world by 2030 (United Nations, 2015). The outbreak of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) occurred in 2020, right at the beginning of the “decade of actions” aiming to cover implementation gaps on delivering SDGs. The pandemic affected the core focus of the SDGs by triggering an economic crisis of large proportions and restricting mobility and migration (Shulla et al., 2021). COVID-19 and the ensuing implications have demonstrated the fragility of SDGs and their interconnections. As the world recovers from this pandemic, the importance of environmental health and resilience as a critical complement to public health is underscored. Rebuilding requires countries to succeed in transitioning to green economies and protection against future disruption from global stressors. From an environmental perspective, the pandemic created both problems and opportunities, each time emphasizing the importance of delivering the SDGs. They also highlighted the need for a multidisciplinary system-thinking approach to explore interconnections between the environment, wildlife, and humans. The COVID-19 pandemic and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development are a dual grand challenge that can only be addressed by everyone as part of a transition to an inclusive and sustainable future. On this basis, environmental analysis is critical in understanding and mitigating current environmental changes at a global level. In a less physically-connected world and an unstable setting where new types of pollution rise fast, environmental analysis must find the pace and tackle this dual grand challenge. Admittedly, this unprecedented time represents an opportunity for environmental analysis to examine the impact of human activities on the natural world and gather information that will protect human health, biodiversity efforts, and help towards combating climate change.