For many, 2020 will always be synonymous with misery; the pandemic will be remembered for isolation, anxiety and — in too many cases — loss. Yet beneath the surface there have been trends and shifts that give us, if not reasons to be cheerful for the coming year then, at
European regulators have led what is becoming an international effort to rein in excessive power on the part of the tech giants, without undermining the benefits to society they have provided during the pandemic. In the US, so far, that seems to mean using existing antitrust powers — in December the Federal Trade Commission and a group of 48 attorneys-general sued Facebook, alleging it had abused its market power. In the UK and EU, new proposals for reforming competition law would attempt to shift how "digital gatekeepers" behave in the first place. If these attempts work they could help to make the internet closer to the free and open vision of its founders.
A critical mass has been building behind fighting climate change, too. China, the world's biggest polluter, committed in September to reducing carbon emissions to net zero by 2060. The People's Republic is just the latest among many to set such a target. These pledges on their own will not do much to stop global warming. But they demonstrate that the world is taking the problem more seriously, and that advances in technology — renewable energy sources and batteries alike — are convincing governments a transition is less costly than once feared.
Progress will probably be slow in fighting racial and gender inequality, but the wave of protests following killings of black Americans by police officers has led businesses and individuals to reflect on current and historic injustices. The determination to create a fairer future will not disappear. Incoming US president Joe Biden's cabinet is already set to be the most diverse in US history.
Moving forward on all these fronts may be difficult in economies devastated by the pandemic; public appetite for reform may be exhausted. Unemployed and destitute workers might turn against anything that suggests further self-sacrifice. Yet there are economic opportunities that can be seized, new forms of working emerging, and politicians across the world have pledged to "build back better". If there is one reason above all for hope for the future it is that the past year has demonstrated, firmly, our ability to adapt.
- Financial Times