UNDP’s “Peoples’ Climate Vote” asked 1.2 million people in 50 countries, many of them young, whether they think climate change is a global emergency, despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and if they support wide-ranging action. Sixty-four per cent of participants agreed and the countries with the highest level of awareness of the climate emergency were Italy and the UK, the hosts of the upcoming UN Climate Conference (COP26).

Faith in progress through new technologies has been a driving force since the industrial revolution, but countries have come to realize the finiteness of natural resources: can we really resolve problems that were caused by the rise of industrial and technological progress with the same processes? Philippe Bihouix advocates for a development model in which “low technologies” would replace today’s “high-tech” world.