3.5 Reflections on thematic areas of concern
Considering that all thematic areas were judged on a scale from 1 to 5, it is pertinent to underline that all scores are relatively high (M> 3.77) and, consequently, all thematic areas can be considered relevant to both crises, i.e., COVID-19 and climate change. The average score for all nine topics in total for both climate change and COVID-19 is relatively higher for experts than for the non-experts group. The highest differential for both COVID-19 and climate change is on “monitoring and data sharing”. For both crises, experts ranked “monitoring and data sharing” higher than the non-experts did, with it even being the lowest-scored topic for climate change for the non-experts.
While experts deemed that working on the area of “perception and behavior” of individuals is crucial for combating COVID-19, non-experts ranked this aspect comparatively lower. However, experts also ranked the importance of “perception and behavior” lower concerning climate change action. Valuing the role of “communication” among non-experts reflects the importance of information sharing and transparency regarding global crises for the public (Fuentes et al., 2020; Samani et al., 2021; Zabaniotou, 2020). It also emphasizes that sharing reliable and correct information is not only crucial to foster better public emergency preparedness and resilience (Sheehan and Fox, 2020) but also to minimize polarization and mistrust between stakeholders (Lyytimäki et al., 2020). “Perception and behavior” of the public has been ranked top by the expert group, and it massively depends on the amount, quality, and interpretation of information (Charoenwong et al., 2020). This connection between the top-ranked areas of concern of the two respondent groups implies synergetic effects between the two areas of concern, i.e., “communication” and “perception and behavior”, if tackled appropriately.
Experts and non-experts agree on the “economy” being the least sector of concern when it comes to COVID-19, yet both groups see much higher relevance for climate change than for COVID-19. It seems as if participants consider focusing on combating COVID-19 and/or climate change to be more important than their impacts on the economy. According to the study by Enria et al., 60% of participants felt that economy is seen as more important than health in decision-making, while a focus on health care has been lacking (Enria et al., 2021). This could also be another reason why participants rate the “economy” as less important.
Most participants agree that “international cooperation” is necessary to combat global crises but rated it slightly higher regarding climate change than COVID-19. Potentially, this could be due to the expectation that measures on a national level against climate change would yield less impactful results in comparison with COVID-19 and because of the option to implement a national lockdown to combat the disease.
For both climate change and COVID-19, experts ranked “policy and governance” comparatively higher. Experts considered tackling “socio-economic inequalities” and their emerging issues as more important for addressing climate change than COVID-19. With regards to “monitoring and data sharing”, a large discrepancy between experts and non-experts was observed. Finally, the low rank of “environmental health” among the non-expert group emphasizes the importance of intensifying efforts that aim to raise public awareness regarding the importance of maintaining a healthy environment, which is equally important for mitigating both crises (Engström et al., 2020).