16 Mar 2020 Coronavirus reducing CO2 emissions
The global health crisis, COVID-19, is reducing carbon emissions more than any policy as ever done before. The COVID-19 viral disease that has swept into at least 114 countries, killing approximately 30,000 people and infecting more than 600,000, is now officially a pandemic. According to a study by Carbon Brief, the actions taken by authorities in China have demonstrated that 25% of carbon dioxide cuts can bring less traffic and cleaner air with only a small reduction in economic growth.
The global health crisis, COVID-19, is reducing carbon emissions more than any policy as ever done before.
The COVID-19 viral disease that has swept into at least 114 countries, killing approximately 30,000 people and infecting more than 600,000, is now officially a pandemic, the World Health Organization announced Wednesday.
According to a study by Carbon Brief, the actions taken by authorities in China have demonstrated that 25% carbon dioxide cuts can bring less traffic and cleaner air with only a small reduction in economic growth. More precisely:
- Coal consumption at power plants was down 36%
- Operating rates for main steel products were down by more than 15%, while crude steel production was almost unchanged
- Coal throughput at the largest coal port fell 29%
- Coking plant utilization fell 23%
- Satellite-based NO2 levels were 37% lower
- Utilization of oil refining capacity was lowered by 34%
- At their peak, flight cancellations were reducing global passenger aviation volumes by 10%, but the sector appears to be recovering, with global capacity down 5% on year in February as a whole.
The virus has disrupted several events linked to the fossil fuel industry all over the world, including the Geneva Motor Show and the Formula One grand prix in Shanghai. The worlds of entertainment, fashion and sport are similarly affected. Everyday DJ and singers are cancelling or postponing gigs. Disneyland and theme parks are shutting down all around the world.
More carbon savings will come from the cancellations of international conferences, which means thousands of tonnes less CO2 from flights taken by international delegates. In February alone, global air traffic decreased by 4.3% with cancellations of tens of thousands of flights to affected areas.
US author and environmentalist Bill McKibben wrote that no environmentalist should welcome a crisis, but they could learn from it: “Completely apart from the human toll, economic disruption is not a politically viable way to deal with global warming in the long term, and it also undercuts the engines of innovation that bring us, say, cheap solar panels.”
But McKibben is more optimistic about the demonstration that people can change. “Companies, for instance, are scrambling to stay productive, even with many people working from home. The idea that we need to travel each day to a central location to do our work may often be the result of inertia, more than anything else. Faced with a real need to commute by mouse, instead of by car, perhaps we’ll see that the benefits of workplace flexibility extend to everything from gasoline consumption to the need for sprawling office parks.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/10/coronavirus-could-cause-fall-in-global-co2-emissions