Coronavirus May Lead to the Biggest Drop in CO2 Emissions Since World War II

With approximately a third of humanity in lockdown due to COVID-19, climate scientists have noticed an unintended, but positive, consequence. Satellite images above China, Italy, and other countries have shown decreased pollution levels, according to IFLScience.com.

 

“I wouldn’t be shocked to see a 5 percent or more drop in carbon dioxide emissions this year, something not seen since the end of World War Two,” Rob Jackson, chair of the Global Carbon Project and professor of Earth system science at Stanford University told Reuters in an email. 

 

According to Jackson, “[n]either the fall of the Soviet Union nor the various oil or savings and loan crises of the past 50 years are likely to have affected emissions the way this crisis is.”

 

Other researchers noted similar greenhouse gas dips during the 2007-2008 global financial crash but noted they quickly returned to normal.

 

“Past global economic slowdowns saw temporary reductions, but post-recovery emissions always bounced back where they would have been in the absence of a recession,” Seaver Wang, a climate and energy analyst, and Zeke Hausfather, director of Climate and Energy, from Breakthrough Institute wrote. 

 

The Breakthrough Institute projects that while global emissions will drop between 0.5 and 2.2 percent, “this is barely a dent in the grand scheme of things.”

 

“Our estimates indicate that the pandemic’s climate silver lining is vanishingly thin,” Wang and Hausfather concluded.