4. Summary and conclusion
The current research identified and evaluated the most critical lessons and areas of concern of the public and experts regarding COVID-19 and climate change. It highlighted the most important lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic that are relevant to climate change crises. Lessons learned from public input in the first survey and the literature review were gathered and evaluated according to their potential contribution to guide fighting the climate crisis. To verify these lessons, a subsequent survey was conducted. To validate the results and to involve scientific opinion, experts from relevant fields concerning either climate change or the COVID-19 pandemic were consulted. The findings of the expert survey validate and support the results that have been derived from the main surveys. This is evidenced by the lack of significant differences in the opinion of both groups. The lessons learned with the highest score included lessons on policy, decision-making, and how scientific facts should guide and be integrated more into the decision-making process and on long-term strategies, including green investments and risk reduction measurements. Although there were differences in the judgments on the relevance of different thematic areas, such as economy, and perception and behavior, the overall ratings for both the categories and lessons learned were relatively high and, therefore, underline the importance of this research’s findings. On average, the scores from the experts were relatively higher, but this could be explained by the experts having more experience in the areas of COVID-19 and climate change compared to the public and, therefore, are more aware of the risks and the urgency of action. The findings of this research convey important messages on which thematic areas and action measures of the COVID-19 pandemic and put together the most critical lessons that, if tackled, would have the greatest positive impact along the way of fighting climate change. To expand the findings made within the research of this paper, future research could focus on investigating which of the methods endorsed by the public are effective measures against climate change.