The Necessity for Transformative Change

Climate change is a quintessential case of the value of dynamic resilience building in the face of changing risks. Society needs to be acutely aware of inflection points that change trajectories and of economy-wide linkages that decide the effectiveness of steps taken. Tinkering at the margins of sustainable development will no longer suffice (it never did), and transformational change is needed to deal with the destruction of nature and biodiversity that underlies the climate crisis. But there are also tough conflicts resulting from a mismatch between the imperatives for action and the actual political priorities. These tensions end up blocking the transition to a new point. In the end, transformational change will need to be grounded in how society values its resources and activities, including ones relating to nature, and how financing is prioritised for policy measures in anticipation of rising risks. Because risks are dynamic, resilience building should be capable of being assessed mid-stream with multiple tools of evaluation, and adjusted accordingly.