The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 has spread a sense of uncertainty and vulnerability across the globe. While 2020 was a year of perplexity, as the shock’s intensity and lack of recent precedents of similar magnitude resulted in doubts and confusion, 2021 has been a year of actions, of individual and collective decisions whose impact will arguably stretch far beyond the year itself. In this piece, Wang Zaibang, Senior Fellow of Taihe Institute, examines the capacity of existing problem-solving mechanisms in face of the most serious systematic crises like climate change and the pandemic. Referring to the outcomes of the recent G20 summit and the COP26 in particular, Wang sheds light on the main factors that have been compromising efficient global governance, and offers a limited outlook on how international institutions can further improve, so that they are more prepared for handling future crises.