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. 2022 Apr 10:816:151503.
doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151503. Epub 2021 Nov 6.

What is the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on global carbon emissions?

Ram L Ray  1 , Vijay P Singh  2 , Sudhir K Singh  3 , Bharat S Acharya  4 , Yiping He  5
Affiliations

What is the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on global carbon emissions?

Ram L Ray et al. Sci Total Environ..

Abstract

The coronavirus 2019 (COVID 19, or SARS-CoV-2) pandemic that started in December 2019 has caused an unprecedented impact in most countries globally and continues to threaten human lives worldwide. The COVID-19 and strict lockdown measures have had adverse effects on human health and national economies. These lockdown measures have played a critical role in improving air quality, water quality, and the ozone layer and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Using Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Level 4 carbon (SMAP LC4) satellite products, this study investigated the impacts of COVID-19 lockdown measures on annual carbon emissions globally, focusing on 47 greatly affected countries and their 105 cities by December 2020. It is shown that while the lockdown measures significantly reduced carbon emissions globally, several countries and cities observed this reduction as temporary because strict lockdown measures were not imposed for extended periods in 2020. Overall, the total carbon emissions of select 184 countries reduced by 438 Mt in 2020 than in 2019. Since the global economic activities are slowly expected to return to the non-COVID-19 state, the reduction in carbon emissions during the pandemic will not be sustainable in the long run. For sustainability, concerned authorities have to put significant efforts to change transportation, climate, and environmental policies globally that fuel carbon emissions. Overall, the presented results provide directions to the stakeholders and policymakers to develop and implement measures to control carbon emissions for a sustainable environment.

Keywords: COVID-19; Carbon emission; Greenhouse gas; Lockdown; Pandemic; SMAP.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Unlabelled Image
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study area shows selected 47 countries, 34 eddy covariance (EC) flux towers, and 105 major cities worldwide.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
A conceptual scheme for geospatial and temporal analyses used for quantifying CO2 emissions globally.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Change in the spatial distribution of annual CO2 emissions (g C m−2 yr−1) between (a) 2016 and 2019 and (b) 2019 and 2020 globally. The negative value indicates carbon uptakes, whereas the positive value indicates carbon emissions.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Spatial coverage of specified (particular) annual CO2 distribution ranges (a) 2016 to 2020, and (b) difference between 2016 and 2019, and 2019 and 2020 globally. The coverage areas for respective years, including the difference between 2016 and 2019, and between 2019 and 2020, are in percentage. The straight line in each bar indicates standard error (SE). The negative value indicates carbon uptakes, whereas the positive value indicates carbon emissions.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
(a) Annual average CO2 emissions, and (b) change in annual CO2 emissions between 2016 and 2019, and 2019 and 2020 at the continental level. The differences in annual carbon emissions were calculated by subtracting the annual emissions of 2019 from 2020. The straight line in each bar indicates a standard error (SE).
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Change in CO2 emissions (g C m−2 yr−1 and Mt C yr−1) between (a) 2016–2019 and between (b) 2019–2020 in the selected 47 countries. The differences in annual CO2 emissions between 2019 and 2020 were ranked in descending order (Higher −ve value indicates the lower carbon emissions in 2020 than in 2019, and so on). The differences in annual carbon emissions were calculated by subtracting the annual emissions of 2019 from 2020.
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Change in CO2 emissions (g C m−2 yr−1) between (a) 2016 and 2019, and (b) 2019 and 2020 at the 105 major cities of selected 47 countries. Fig. 7a includes 25 countries and their 65 major cities, which showed a decrease in annual carbon emission in 2020, whereas Fig. 7b includes 22 countries and their 40 cities that had an increase in annual carbon emission in 2020. The differences in annual carbon emissions were calculated by subtracting the annual emissions of 2019 from 2020.
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Change in CO2 emissions (g C m−2 yr−1) between (a) 2016 and 2019, and (b) 2019 and 2020 at the 105 major cities of selected 47 countries. Fig. 7a includes 25 countries and their 65 major cities, which showed a decrease in annual carbon emission in 2020, whereas Fig. 7b includes 22 countries and their 40 cities that had an increase in annual carbon emission in 2020. The differences in annual carbon emissions were calculated by subtracting the annual emissions of 2019 from 2020.
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