The Impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on climate change and air quality: four country case studies

IF 4.6 Q2 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Pouya Samani, C. García-Velásquez, Perine Fleury, Y. van der Meer
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引用次数: 13

Abstract

Non-technical summary To decrease the negative impacts of the coronavirus outbreak on human health, governments have implemented wide-ranging control measures. Moreover, they were urged to tackle a new challenge in energy policies to supply a new form of demand derived from new lifestyles of citizens and different energy consumption patterns. This article investigates the impacts of these changes on climate change and human health (due to air pollution) as a challenge for both citizens and governments in four countries: Colombia, France, the Netherlands, and Portugal. Technical summary The emergence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been associated with global challenges in both energy supply and demand. Numerous articles have discussed the potential benefits of COVID-19 for our planet to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and air pollutants. By bringing the emissions from the energy production together with the air quality indicators, this article studies the impact on climate change and human health due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the consequent changes in energy policies of governments as well as lifestyles in different societies. This study shows that in spite of having a reduction, the GHG emissions might go back to previous or higher levels if governments do not see this pandemic as an opportunity to promote the use of renewable energies, which are becoming cheaper than non-renewables. Additionally, lower energy demand and less anthropogenic activities do not necessarily result in lower GHG emissions from energy production. Our results highlight the need for revising the policies and decisions of both governments and citizens, as temporary reductions in the levels of energy demand and air pollutants can easily be counterbalanced by adverse effects, known as the ‘rebound effect.’ Social media summary How did the changes in energy consumption and production due to COVID-19 affect climate change and human health in different countries?
新冠肺炎疫情对气候变化和空气质量的影响:四国案例研究
为了减少冠状病毒疫情对人类健康的负面影响,各国政府实施了广泛的控制措施。此外,还敦促它们应对能源政策方面的新挑战,以满足由于公民的新生活方式和不同的能源消费模式而产生的新形式的需求。本文调查了这些变化对气候变化和人类健康的影响(由于空气污染),作为对四个国家的公民和政府的挑战:哥伦比亚、法国、荷兰和葡萄牙。2019冠状病毒病(COVID-19)大流行的出现与全球能源供需挑战有关。许多文章讨论了COVID-19在减少温室气体(GHG)排放和空气污染物方面对地球的潜在好处。本文通过将能源生产的排放与空气质量指标结合起来,研究了COVID-19大流行对气候变化和人类健康的影响,以及随之而来的政府能源政策和不同社会生活方式的变化。这项研究表明,尽管减少了温室气体排放,但如果各国政府不把这次大流行视为促进使用可再生能源的机会,温室气体排放可能会回到以前或更高的水平,因为可再生能源正变得比不可再生能源便宜。此外,能源需求的减少和人为活动的减少并不一定导致能源生产产生的温室气体排放量的减少。我们的研究结果强调了修改政府和公民的政策和决定的必要性,因为能源需求和空气污染物水平的暂时减少很容易被负面影响抵消,即所谓的“反弹效应”。2019冠状病毒病导致的能源消耗和生产变化如何影响不同国家的气候变化和人类健康?
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Global Sustainability
Global Sustainability Environmental Science-Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
CiteScore
10.90
自引率
3.60%
发文量
19
审稿时长
17 weeks
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