The greatest challenge of our generation is global warming. Given that the latter process is closely connected to the expansion of industrial capitalism, it has become an important topic for International Political Economy. Core topics include the linkage between economic globalization and climate change and the role of business in negotiations on climate change limitation (O’Brien and Williams, 2016: 250–8; Dauvergne, 2020). Moreover, International Political Economy has started to engage with the more general debate between ‘ecocentric’ and ‘technocentric’ approaches to sustainability, particularly on the feasibility of planned ‘degrowth’ in order to overcome the global environmental crisis. The degrowth idea also moves against the global agribusiness food system and pleads for a return of agriculture as local community support.

The coronavirus pandemic has touched on all of these topics. It has demonstrated the close linkage between economic growth and climate change – pollution was heavily reduced during the core recession – and has given some indications on the salience of the climate change agenda during the period of economic reconstruction (Chapter 24). It has also brought the prospects for degrowth forcefully to the table and has given us an opportunity to gauge the attractiveness of the degrowth concept within society at large (Chapter 25). Finally, it has highlighted the dangers of a further expansion of the global agrifood system; for example, with regard to the frequency of zoonotic diseases and the ability of local production to support the need of the local population in a situation of crisis (Chapter 26).