Abstract

We propose to compare the pandemics and climate change from the point of view of the governance challenges that both imply, and the strategies that have been implemented to respond to it. Specifically, we seek to understand why facing the pandemic appears to have been 'easier' than what has been the case with climate change, that is, why the public response to the phenomenon has managed to be so fast and effective, in relative terms, compared to many other dilemmas facing our contemporary society. To that purpose, we advance a comparative analysis model, inspired by Niklas Luhmann' s Theory of Social Systems, which we call 'governance- prism', structured along three dimensions (who governs? what is governed? what for? or where is it governed?). We also propose that different specific governance strategies can be characterized based on how these questions are answered. From this, some findings and transversal reflections are derived that, we hope, can serve as a guide to design better governance arrangements that better prepare us both to face the climate and environmental crisis that we are experiencing, as well as to face new hypothetical epidemic outbreaks that may arise in the future.