Sustainability had risen up board agendas, and thinking was underway about not only how to satisfy environmental, social and governance compliance, but how to redesign business models for a net-carbon-zero world.

Faced with real threats to corporate survival from Covid-19 and the growing realisation that the world will wake up to colossal debt, the temptation will be to say: “Not now, climate change! Can we really afford to pay attention to sustainability just at this moment?” In any case, it will be argued, 2020 is likely to see a record fall in global carbon emissions, so we just bought ourselves some time.