Irish Examiner view: Contributing to global change

OECD conference will include discussions on how countries are responding to the pandemic and how prepared we are to confront global emergencies in the future

OECD secretary general Angel Gurría will open the New Approaches to Economic Challenges conference, 

The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed how the interconnectedness of our global systems can turn local crises into worldwide emergencies. 

Rising inequality, a hugely complex global financial system, increasing digitalisation, climate change, and the loss of biodiversity all increase the risk of systemic failures, according to the OECD’s New Approaches to Economic Challenges initiative.

These challenges will be the subject of an online international conference tomorrow opened by OECD secretary general Angel Gurría and our own President, Michael D Higgins. 

It is to his great credit that Mr Higgins will jointly open this conference. His environmental credentials are impeccable. He has used the Government jet only once in the past three years and flies commercially. Before the Covid-19 crisis the president chose to travel around the country by train in order to reduce his carbon footprint.

The conference will include discussions on how countries are responding to the current pandemic and how prepared we are to confront global emergencies in the future. 

On a broader level, it will look at a series of converging planetary emergencies linked to the environment, the economy, and our social and political systems.

This conference is an important contribution to changing the global order economically, socially, politically, and environmentally because we are all in this together.