From his position as a Senior Fellow, the author addresses in this book
the structural challenges and difficulties that predate Covid pandemic:
climate change, economic inequality and the demographic challenge. These
challenges raise fundamental questions of equity both between and within
generations. Their immediate effects are much weaker than their
long-term effects, which encourages policymakers to delay. But the cost
of meeting them increases over time. These menaces raise complex
technical and economic issues; some decisions must be made under great
uncertainty. For each of these challenges, solutions exist: why is there
little progress and how to turning threats into opportunities?
In all cases, technological change is a central aspect, constituting
both part of the problem and part of the solution. The solutions the
author formulates are of two kinds: policy recommendations and
exploratory strategic proposals. Some of the recommendations include
measures that have been widely discussed but never implemented. The
author wonders why these measures were never implemented? Some of the
strategies are more exploratory in nature because they are new or their
effects are less well understood, or because the risks associated with
their implementation are significant. The author effectively analyzes
the different options for exiting the crisis and explains how his
proposals differ from the current reforms for global warming, inequality
and population aging.
