Cap solves climate mitigation.
Eduard Soler et al. 21, Senior Research Fellow, CIDOB. PhD, International Relations, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Hannah Abdullah, Senior Research Fellow, Global Cities Programme, CIDOB; Inés Arco, Visiting Fellow, CIDOB; Anna Ayuso Pozo, Associate Professor, Public International Law, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, "The World In 2022: Ten Issues That Will Shape the International Agenda," Barcelona Centre for International Affairs, December 2021, https://www.cidob.org/en/publications/publication_series/notes_internacionals/265/the_world_in_2022_ten_issues_that_will_shape_the_international_agenda.
Are we better prepared for a new way of doing things? Time will tell if the reassessment of the priorities of public administrations and societies that occurred in the pandemic has lasting effect. The measures imposed to tackle the health emergency accelerated processes of economic and social transformation. Readjustments may occur when it comes to teleworking, but the change of habits that has taken place in mobility, consumption and information processing and the intensive process of learning digital tools will be difficult to reverse. Another of the legacies of the health crisis has been the focus on science. Ostensibly contradictory phenomena have emerged. Science’s social prestige has grown (the latest global State of Science Index (SOSI) suggests that 79% of people believe that science will improve life in the next five years), but so have the dynamics of politicisation and contestation mentioned above.
If this trend continues it may have a densifying effect, with more collaboration projects between research teams, alliances forming between public administrations, scientists and the private sector, and a closer relationship between the public and science. Meanwhile, science budgets will be notably larger: the Next Generation EU funds allocate 37% and 20% to financing the green and digital transitions, respectively, while the US stimulus plans will spend $250 billion on innovation.
On the other hand, this will exacerbate the concentration of scientific production in just a few countries. Global investment in artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing is led by the United States, China and a small group of developed countries, as well as India in certain fields. When it comes to new patents China is the undisputed leader and a wider shift towards Asia is underway. This scientific asymmetry adds a new dimension of inequality to a world advancing at multiple speeds, even in innovation.
Alongside health, the environment is the second major field where efforts are being concentrated. In 2022, pressure will rise on scientific communities, businesses and public administrations to find innovative solutions to the climate crisis. This includes research into advanced technologies to reduce emissions associated with energy use, such as carbon capture and storage, small modular nuclear reactors and options for decarbonising energy-intensive industries. Another challenge is the search for technical solutions to anticipate and prevent the worst impacts of natural disasters and increase resilience.