The good news is that the message got thru to politicians before the pandemic, and they were starting to act... now that the world has changed (lots of jobs are currently gone or are "unsafe") there is a need to create new jobs, and governments in many countries are focussing on creating 'green' jobs doing things to help the environment (so making solar panels etc, or making homes more energy efficient).

Lots of places in the UK were already in the process of making cars less attractive (by changing roads to be kinder to pedestrians and cyclists and busses), and that has been accelerated and amplified to help people keep their distance from each other. It seems to be quite popular, but we'll have to see how it goes over time.


So that's one issue with significant progress... now we need the other big social issue to gain momentum too, unfortunately because it is focussing on helping one group of people (rather than everyone) it is harder to get enough people on side.