COVER STORY This issue: Climate is Everything. The pandemic remade the economy. Now, it’s the climate’s turn. On her third day as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Marcia Fudge phoned the White House. She had taken over an agency with a role to play addressing a range of crises as the lack of affordable housing in U.S. cities has left hundreds of thousands homeless and millions more in financial straits. She connected with Joe Biden’s climate team. Fudge and Gina McCarthy, Biden’s national climate adviser, talked about addressing climate change and the affordable-housing shortage at the same time. …To understand the world we live in, read TIME.

Until her father’s health began deteriorating, the couple could have been mistaken for any other happy young husband and wife. She had been just 13 when they met. He was the striking, handsome 18-year-old guide who took her and her sister on a tour of his naval college. During the war, when he was on a battleship in the Mediterranean, she kept his photograph on her dressing table, even though her father didn’t quite approve. They had a spectacular wedding, and had had two children by the time they were traveling in Africa and got the news: her father, King George VI, had died. At age 25, she had succeeded to the British throne as Elizabeth II. Everything also changed for her husband…

4 prescriptions for a more sustainable 2030. January brought the launch of TIME 2030, a decade-long reporting project spotlighting the ideas and innovations driving progress toward a more sustainable and equitable world. We convened a range of leaders from around the globe to help steer our coverage, and for this climate-focused issue, we invited four major thinkers on sustainability to join the 2030 committee: environmentalist Ma Jun; activist Vanessa Nakate, founder of Africa’s Rise Up climate movement; former EPA administrator Lisa P. Jackson; and corporate leader Paul Polman. Here, each offers a solution to a major problem we must solve before the end of the decade…