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).