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Mindsets must change for The Great Reset

Filed under CoronavirusClimate Emergency

5 June 2020

Our world faces a human tragedy on multiple fronts. Time is short. Coordinated action is needed.

‘Think big and act now,’ Prince Charles urged every leader in business, governments and trades unions. He spoke by video link to head up the launch of what the World Economic Forum labels The Great Reset.

A dozen top global voices backed the call live from their desks in lockdown. It reflected the urgent need to coordinate the huge momentum already building in many countries, often under public pressure.

The UK’s future king, now aged 71, spoke candidly. He has been campaigning on this for 38 years. Finally, COVID-19 and the fast building climate emergency have forced a new awareness of the urgent need for a Great Reset. “We have no alternative. Unless we take the action necessary, and we build again in a greener, more sustainable, more inclusive way, then we will end up having more and more pandemics, and more and more disasters from ever accelerating global warming and climate change”, said the prince.

The Head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva went further. The world, she said, must prevent “the Great Reversal”. So “we now have to step up and use all the strength we have. In the case of the IMF: the $1 trillion lending capacity and tremendous engagement on the policy side”. She added: “And I want to say loud and clear the best memorial we can build for those who lost their lives to the pandemic is this greener, smarter, fairer world.”

Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the WEF said this was not about putting “a patchwork on an old system”. So he urged a huge change of mindset.

It came with an equally huge commitment and ambition “to mobilise any organisation, any person in the world” in the eight months to a planned physical and digital meeting in Davos next January. “It’s not a just one off event what we are doing. It’s a process which integrates many facets, contributions from the governments, international organisations, business, companies, the young generation.”

Our fragile planet desperately needs this ambitious initiative. It will require the massive change in leadership skills that Thinking the Unthinkable (TTU) has been urging for five years. Now the COVID-19 emergency has forced that change under extreme circumstances in a short period of time.

At TTU we will monitor progress. Hopefully we will also be able to take up the commitment from Professor Schwab that the Great Reset will be “open to all stakeholders” as part of “a global mobilisation effort”.