Coronavirus pandemic reduced China's CO2 emissions in short-term, while stimulus packages may lead to emissions growth in medium- and long-term

Short-term effects of PM2.5 components on the respiratory infectious disease: a global perspective

Although previous research has reached agreement on the significant impact of particulate matter (PM2.5) on respiratory infectious diseases, PM2.5 acts as an aggregation of miscellaneous pollutants and the individual effect of each component has not been examined. Here, we investigate the effects of PM2.5 components, including black carbon (BC), organic carbon (OC), sulfate ion (SO4), dust, and sea salt (SS), on the morbidity and mortality of the recent respiratory disease, i.e. COVID-19. The daily data of 236 countries and provinces/states (e.g., in the United States and China) worldwide during 2020-2022 are utilized. To derive the pollutant-specific causal effects, optimal instrumental variables for each pollutant are selected from a large set of atmospheric variables. We find that one µg/m3 increase in OC increases the number of cases and death by about 3% to 6% from the mean worldwide during a lag of one day up to three days. Our findings remain consistent and robust when we change control variables such as the flight index and weather proxies, and also when applying a sine transformation to the positivity and death rate. When analyzing health effects among different areas, we find stronger impact in China, for its higher local OC concentration, as opposed to the impact in the United States. Health benefits from PM2.5 pollution reduction are comparatively high for developed regions, yet decreases in cases and deaths number are rather overt in less developing regions. Our research provides inspiration and reference for dealing with other respiratory diseases in the post-pandemic era.

The macro-economic and CO2 emissions impacts of COVID-19 and recovery policies in China

The outbreak and ongoing evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic have dramatically impacted economic development and CO2 emissions. China is under simultaneous pressure to recover from the outbreak and meet its carbon reduction targets, and the government is endeavouring to stimulate economic recovery through fiscal and monetary policies. This paper uses a computable general equilibrium model to measure the impact on China's economic recovery and carbon emissions by incorporating the pandemic shock and related economic recovery policies of loan prime rate (LPR) and value-added tax (VAT) reduction. The study found that COVID-19 led to a simultaneous shock on China's supply and demand sides in which GDP dropped by 2.62% and carbon emissions fell by 2.53%, compared to the period prior to COVID-19. Although the LPR and VAT reduction effectively mitigated economic loss, the combined LPR and VAT reduction had a more substantial effect on boosting GDP than the single policies. The VAT cut expands production and was used to overcome supply-side shocks, while lowering LPR mitigates the damage of demand-side shocks. Compared to the VAT reduction policy, reduced LPR has smaller carbon emissions per unit of GDP output. Consequently, we recommend that the government concentrate on a combination of policies to navigate pandemic shocks, as the two economic stimulus policies are confirmed to complement one another in terms of strengths and shortcomings.

Embedding nature-based solutions into the social cost of carbon

China, the world's largest CO₂ emitter, is making every effort to transition to a low-carbon economy and fulfill its part of a concerted global commitment to combating climate change. In tandem with decarbonizing energy and industries, feasible supplementary measures are urgently needed to help remove anthropogenic CO₂ from the atmosphere. A burgeoning literature has emphasized the CO₂ removal capability of land re-naturalization (such as afforestation and wetland restoration), thereby regarding cognate land-use conversions as Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and potential climate policy options. However, little empirical evidence exists concerning the effectiveness of different land re-naturalization pathways (such as converting wetlands to forests or agricultural lands to grasslands), and it also remains unclear how NbS alternatives (i.e., land-use conversions resulting in negative CO₂ emission) and non-NbS options (i.e., land-use conversions resulting in positive CO₂ emission) could affect the social cost of carbon (SCC), a conventional measurement for prescribing carbon mitigation approaches. This study aims to fill in this knowledge gap via embedding NbS into the dynamic integrated climate-economics (DICE) model to quantify their impacts on the SCC. Using the Pearl River Delta region (south China) as a case study for the temporal horizon during 2000-2020, we find that both positive and negative CO₂ fluxes have been brought by different natural/semi-natural land conversions, affecting the SCC correspondingly. A total of 7 out of 17 types of land-use conversions could be identified as feasible NbS interventions, including forest restoration, forest-to-wetland, grassland-to-forest, grassland-to-wetland, grassland-to-cropland, cropland-to-forest, and cropland-to-wetland conversions, which could reduce the SCC values (comparing 2020 base-year with 2000 base-year) by 0.0132, 0.0009, 0.0033, 0.0030, 0.0001, 0.0082, and 0.0001 (USD/tCO₂), respectively. While the SCC is mainly determined by energy and industrial structure, the overall effect of NbS is larger than the sum of land urbanization and non-NbS land-use conversions. Via embedding the real-world inter-dynamics of land-use conversions into the SCC quantification, this study presents a pioneer assessment of the impacts of NbS on the SCC in an integrated framework, sheds important insights into the effectiveness of NbS, and offers practical implications for policy-makers to devise comprehensive policies covering all feasible CO₂ abatement options.

Daily Emission Patterns of Coal-Fired Power Plants in China Based on Multisource Data Fusion

Daily emission estimates are essential for tracking the dynamic changes in emission sources. In this work, we estimate daily emissions of coal-fired power plants in China during 2017-2020 by combining information from the unit-based China coal-fired Power plant Emissions Database (CPED) and real-time measurements from continuous emission monitoring systems (CEMS). We develop a step-by-step method to screen outliers and impute missing values for data from CEMS. Then, plant-level daily profiles of flue gas volume and emissions obtained from CEMS are coupled with annual emissions from CPED to derive daily emissions. Reasonable agreement is found between emission variations and available statistics (i.e., monthly power generation and daily coal consumption). Daily power emissions are in the range of 6267-12,994, 0.4-1.3, 6.5-12.0, and 2.5-6.8 Gg for CO₂, PM_2.5, NO _x , and SO₂, respectively, with high emissions in winter and summer caused by heating and cooling demand. Our estimates can capture sudden decreases (e.g., those associated with COVID-19 lockdowns and short-term emission controls) or increases (e.g., those related to a drought) in daily power emissions during typical socioeconomic events. We also find that weekly patterns from CEMS exhibit no obvious weekend effect compared to those in previous studies. The daily power emissions will help to improve chemical transport modeling and facilitate policy formulation.

The Influence of Accelerated Carbonation on Physical and Mechanical Properties of Hemp-Fibre-Reinforced Alkali-Activated Fly Ash and Fly Ash/Slag Mortars

The physical and mechanical properties of hemp-fibre-reinforced alkali-activated (AA) mortars under accelerated carbonation were evaluated. Two matrices of different physical and chemical properties, i.e., a low Ca-containing and less dense one with fly ash (FA) and a high Ca-containing and denser one with FA and granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS), were reinforced with fibres (10 mm, 0.5 vol% and 1.0 vol%). Under accelerated carbonation, due to the pore refinement resulting from alkali and alkaline earth salt precipitation, AA hemp fibre mortars markedly (20%) decreased their water absorption. FA-based hemp mortars increased significantly their compressive and flexural strength (40% and 34%, respectively), whereas in the denser FA/GBFS matrix (due to the hindered CO₂ penetration, i.e., lower chemical reaction between CO₂ and pore solution and gel products), only a slight variation (±10%) occurred. Under accelerated carbonation, embrittlement of the fibre/matrix interface and of the whole composite occurred, accompanied by increased stiffness, decreased deformation capacity and loss of the energy absorption capacity under flexure. FA-based matrices exhibited more pronounced embrittlement than the denser FA/GBFS matrices. A combination of FA/GBFS-based mortar reinforced with 0.5 vol% fibre dosage ensured an optimal fibre/matrix interface and stress transfer, mitigating the embrittlement of the material under accelerated carbonation.

Difference and Cluster Analysis on the Carbon Dioxide Emissions in China During COVID-19 Lockdown via a Complex Network Model

The continuous increase of carbon emissions is a serious challenge all over the world, and many countries are striving to solve this problem. Since 2020, a widespread lockdown in the country to prevent the spread of COVID-19 escalated, severely restricting the movement of people and unnecessary economic activities, which unexpectedly reduced carbon emissions. This paper aims to analyze the carbon emissions data of 30 provinces in the 2020 and provide references for reducing emissions with epidemic lockdown measures. Based on the method of time series visualization, we transform the time series data into complex networks to find out the hidden information in these data. We found that the lockdown would bring about a short-term decrease in carbon emissions, and most provinces have a short time point of impact, which is closely related to the level of economic development and industrial structure. The current results provide some insights into the evolution of carbon emissions under COVID-19 blockade measures and valuable insights into energy conservation and response to the energy crisis in the post-epidemic era.

The Evaluation of Temporal and Spatial Trends of Global Warming and Extreme Ocean Surface Temperatures: A Case Study of Canada

In recent years, extreme weather has frequently occurred worldwide and caused significant disasters, including large-scale forest fires, rare heat waves, heavy rains, floods, and tornadoes. Those have caused unprecedented losses of human lives and property in some countries, affecting the livelihoods of many people. Climate change and natural disasters are the two hotspots of scientific research today, and there is a certain degree of correlation between the two. Although countries worldwide have long known about climate change and its threats to human existence and have been discussing countermeasures, they have still not been able to carry out concerted and practical actions. The study takes Canada as an example, and selects six representative provinces to evaluate the temporal change characteristics of extreme temperature at different sites. We use MATLAB software to perform multiple linear regression, linear fitting methods, and Pearson correlation analysis to analyze spatial changes and time-space trends. The method studies the relationship between the emergence of extreme weather and climate change and uses the evolutionary game theory to explore whether there is any contradiction between global warming and extreme local cold. The study found: (i) The maximum temperature of most provinces in Canada will be constantly higher, and the minimum temperature will be lower. Generally speaking, the average temperature of each year is slowly decreasing. (ii) The average temperature data of British Columbia (Eastern Pacific) and Quebec (West Atlantic) show that ocean temperature has a specific effect on land temperature in surrounding areas. (iii) Pearson correlation analysis shows that the emergence of extreme weather is closely related to climate change. (iv) The evolution path of the two-party game shows that global warming and the occurrence of extreme local cold are not contradictory. Under the conditions, there is a certain degree of synchronization between the two, interacting and influencing each other.

Energy consumption structural adjustment and carbon neutrality in the post-COVID-19 era

Since the spread of COVID-19 pandemic all over the world, a significant recession has broken out with no precedent. China has brought up a new voluntary contribution target that achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. How to achieve climate change mitigation targets without heavily hindering economic development is of great importance in the future. In this study, a Markov chain model is employed to forecast primary energy consumption (PEC) structure and verify whether the carbon intensity target would be achieved under three scenarios with different economic growth rates, such as 6.1%, 4.2%, and 2.3%, respectively. A multi-sector dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model is employed to simulate and evaluate economic development, fossil and non-fossil energy consumption, and CO₂ emissions under three scenarios using data calibration according to the Markov chain prediction result. The prediction results from the Markov chain show that energy structural adjustment can help us achieve the carbon intensity target of 2030 under both steady and mid-speed development scenarios. As long as the economic growth rate is higher than 4.2%, the carbon intensity target can be achieved mainly through energy consumption structural change, which provides a way to achieve the carbon neutrality target of 2060. The simulation results from the DSGE model show that energy structural adjustment can also smooth the volatility of the economic fluctuation when exogenous stochastic shocks happened.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic to the Sustainability of the Energy Sector

In order to control the COVID-19 pandemic, the governments of the world started to implement measures regarding social distance and social contacts, including closures of cities, work and study relocations, and work suspension. The epidemical situation and the lockdown of the economy by governments in various countries caused changes in production, changes in the habits of energy consumers and other energy-related changes. This article analyses the impact of the global pandemic on the energy sector and the relationship with the progress to the sustainability of the energy sector. The systematic literature review was performed in the Web of Science (WoS) database. The research follows recommendations of the SALSA (Search, Appraisal, Synthesis and Analysis) and PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) approaches. A total of 113 relevant articles were selected for the analysis. All selected articles were categorized according to their application and impact areas. The five main impact areas of the COVID-19 pandemic to the sustainability of the energy sector were identified: consumption and energy demand; air pollution; investments in renewable energy; energy poverty; and energy system flexibility. Based on the current research findings and perception of the problem, the main insights for future research in the field are provided.

Unveiling the changes in urban atmospheric CO2 in the time of COVID-19 pandemic: A case study of Florence (Italy)

The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by global mobility restrictions and slowdown in manufacturing activities. Accordingly, cities experienced a significant decrease of CO2 emissions. In this study, continuous measurements of CO2 fluxes, atmospheric CO2 concentrations and δ13C-CO2 values were performed in the historical center of Florence (Italy) before, during and after the almost two-month long national lockdown. The temporal trends of the analyzed parameters, combined with the variations in emitting source categories (from inventory data), evidenced a fast response of flux measurements to variations in the strength of the emitting sources. Similarly, the δ13C-CO2 values recorded the change in the prevailing sources contributing to urban atmospheric CO2, confirming the effectiveness of carbon isotopic data as geochemical tracers for identifying and quantifying the relative contributions of emitting sources. Although the direct impact of restriction measurements on CO2 concentrations was less clear due to seasonal trends and background fluctuations, an in-depth analysis of the daily local CO2 enhancement with respect to the background values revealed a progressive decrease throughout the lockdown phase at the end of the heating season (>10 ppm), followed by a net increase (ca. 5 ppm) with the resumption of traffic. Finally, the investigation of the shape of the frequency distribution of the analyzed variables revealed interesting aspects concerning the dynamics of the systems.

Electricity-consumption data reveals the economic impact and industry recovery during the pandemic

Coping with the outbreak of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), many countries have implemented public-health measures and movement restrictions to prevent the spread of the virus. However, the strict mobility control also brought about production stagnation and market disruption, resulting in a severe worldwide economic crisis. Quantifying the economic stagnation and predicting post-pandemic recovery are imperative issues. Besides, it is significant to examine how the impact of COVID-19 on economic activities varied with industries. As a reflection of enterprises' production output, high-frequency electricity-consumption data is an intuitive and effective tool for evaluating the economic impact of COVID-19 on different industries. In this paper, we quantify and compare economic impacts on the electricity consumption of different industries in eastern China. In order to address this problem, we conduct causal analysis using a difference-in-difference (DID) estimation model to analyze the effects of multi-phase public-health measures. Our model employs the electricity-consumption data ranging from 2019 to 2020 of 96 counties in the Eastern China region, which covers three main economic sectors and their 53 sub-sectors. The results indicate that electricity demand of all industries (other than information transfer industry) rebounded after the initial shock, and is back to pre-pandemic trends after easing the control measures at the end of May 2020. Emergency response, the combination of all countermeasures to COVID-19 in a certain period, affected all industries, and the higher level of emergency response with stricter movement control resulted in a greater decrease in electricity consumption and production. The pandemic outbreak has a negative-lag effect on industries, and there is greater resilience in industries that are less dependent on human mobility for economic production and activities.

Declining carbon emission/concentration during COVID-19: A critical review on temporary relief

In December 2019 the deadly pandemic COVID-19 traumatized mankind through its lethal impact. To seize the outbreak, nationwide/region-based lockdown strategies were adopted by most of the COVID-19 affected countries. This in turn resulted in restricted transportation via surface, water, and air, as well as significantly reduced working hours of the industry sectors, so on and so forth. The obvious outcome was a sudden discernible decline in atmospheric adulteration. Accordingly, the anthropogenic emissions at the global and regional/local scales were examined during the lockdown period by several researchers using both or either satellite-based and ground-based monitoring. Among several other air-contaminants, carbon has a dominant toxicological profile causing adverse health effects and thereby attracting researches interest in carbon-release probing during the systematic confinement period imposed by the ruling authorities across the globe. The results of those studies indicated a confirmed decline in carbon emission/concentration making the air more breathable for the period. In this review, the studies related to anthropogenic emissions of carbon during the lockdown period are accounted for by compiling the recently reported data from published articles.

Impact of COVID-19 on Urban Energy Consumption of Commercial Tourism City

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has spread worldwide. To alleviate this spread, various blockade policies have been implemented in many areas. This has led to a sluggish demand in the world's major economies, sharp drop in the trade index, and negative growth in energy consumption. To formulate a better epidemic prevention policy for urban energy consumption of commercial tourism cities, this study summarizes the major statistics of energy supply and demand before and during the epidemic period based on actual data. The characteristics of energy consumption in different sectors, including hotels, transportation, tourism culture, and public utilities, are then analyzed in detail. Finally, the energy consumption features of commercial tourism cities represented by Macao are compared to those of other typical countries (e.g., Italy, United States, Japan, and Brazil). These analyses demonstrate the impact of COVID-19 on the energy consumption in commercial tourism cities, which provides insights for the government or energy providers to formulate policies to adapt to this pandemic.

Positive global environmental impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown: a review

Global environmental change is mainly due to human behaviours and is a major threat to sustainability. Despite all the health and economic consequences, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on environmental health warrants the scientific community's attention. Thus, this article examined and narratively reviewed the impact of several drastic measures taken on the macro environment and holistic planetary health. We note that the amount of pollution in the air, water, soil, and noise showed a significant decline during the pandemic. Global air quality improved due to lower anthropogenic emissions of air pollutants and atmospheric particles. Water ecosystems also demonstrated signs of recuperation in many countries. Less commercial fishing internationally resulted in the restoration of some aquatic life. Additionally, significant reduction of solid and water waste led to less soil pollution. Some places experienced cleaner beaches and ocean water while wildlife sightings in urban areas across the world occurred more often. Lastly, the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown also led to a worldwide decline in noise pollution. However, the beneficial environmental effects will not be permanent as the world gradually returns to its pre-pandemic status quo. Therefore, behavioural changes such as adopting a lifestyle that reduces carbon footprint are needed to make a positive impact on the environment. In addition, world leaders should consider the national policy changes necessary to ensure continuity of as many of the positive environmental impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown as possible. Those changes would also serve to lessen the likelihood of another zoonotic calamity.

What medical waste management system may cope With COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons from Wuhan

The global pandemic caused by the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) has led to a dramatic increase in medical waste worldwide. This tremendous increase in medical waste is an important transmission medium for the virus and thus poses new and serious challenges to urban medical waste management. This study investigates the response of medical waste management to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent changes in Wuhan City based on the most detailed data available, including waste generation, storage, transportation, and disposal. The results show that despite a 5-fold increase in the demand for daily medical waste disposal in the peak period, the quick responses in the storage, transportation, and disposal sectors during the pandemic ensured that all medical waste was disposed of within 24 hours of generation. Furthermore, this paper discusses medical waste management during future emergencies in Wuhan. The ability of the medical waste management system in Wuhan to successfully cope with the rapid increase in medical waste caused by major public health emergencies has important implications for other cities suffering from the pandemic and demonstrates the need to establish resilient medical emergency systems in urban areas.

Addressing the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on energy use in municipal buildings: A case study in Florianópolis, Brazil

COVID-19 has spread quickly to several countries following the initial outbreak of the disease. As a consequence, several measures have been taken to mitigate the virus spread worldwide. In the city of Florianópolis, in southern Brazil, a strict lockdown was implemented on 16 March 2020. Although commercial activities were allowed to resume 21 April, a complete lockdown of municipal public buildings (e.g., administrative buildings and schools) lasted up to 5 August 2020. Reports in the literature emphasize the influence of occupant presence and actions on energy use in buildings. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the electric energy use of municipal buildings in Florianópolis. A large database with monthly electric energy use data was provided by the City Hall and analyzed. Firstly, the consumer units were grouped into three categories: systems, services and buildings. This revealed that buildings were directly affected by the lockdown measures, but systems and services were not. Therefore, an in-depth evaluation of health centers, administrative buildings, elementary schools and nursery schools was conducted and mean electric energy reductions of 11.1 %, 38.6 %, 50.3 %, and 50.4 %, respectively, were observed. Although it may initially seem unexpected, municipal health centers had a small electric energy use reduction, because they were not directly responsible for COVID-19 treatment, as patients were forwarded to specific facilities. Walkthroughs and energy audits were performed in an administrative building, an elementary school, and a nursery school, to gain a deeper understanding of the consumption trends. It was observed that municipal buildings present a basal energy use intensity even when the buildings are unoccupied. Energy audits verified that stand-by loads and vital loads, such as lighting for safety and computer servers, play a key role in this share of energy use.

Estimation of economic benefits associated with the reduction in the CO2 emission due to COVID-19

Since World War-II, the COVID-19 pandemic is considered the most serious challenge faced by the mankind. This pandemic has not only adversely affected the health systems but has also disrupted the manufacturing and industrial sectors and thus leading to low CO2 emissions. Reduction in the carbon dioxide (CO2) gas emission has been noticed nearly everywhere in the world due to shutdown of industries and lockdown imposed by governments as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the year 2019, around 37 billion tons of CO2 emitted globally that has been reduced by 9% in the same period (January to July) for the year 2020 as consequence of COVID-19 pandemic. The Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) of a country reflects the economic damages caused by per ton increase in the CO2 emissions. Economic and environmental benefits are associated with the reduction of CO2 emissions as a result of COVID-19 and their estimation is the main theme of the study. Coupling reduction in the CO2 emissions to the Social Cost of Carbon gives economic benefit for a country. The research presented investigates the long term economic and environmental benefits associated with the reduction in the CO2 emissions for various regions of the world. The economic benefit due to the reduction in the of the CO2 emissions as consequence of the COVID-19 to global economy is estimated as 650 billion US Dollars for the period of 6 months (from January to July). The study mainly focuses on the countries that contribute the high percentage of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. The first half of year 2020 (from January 2020 to July 2020) is taken into consideration because lockdown was mainly followed in that period. Further, within the country the sectors that contribute the high percentage of CO2 emissions are also taken into account.

A retrospective analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 restrictions on energy consumption at a disaggregated level

Since the emergence of the virus that causes COVID-19 (the SARS-CoV-2) in Wuhan in December 2019, societies all around the world have had to change their normal life patterns due to the restrictions and lockdowns imposed by governments. These changes in life patterns have a direct reflection on energy consumption. Thanks to Smart Grid technologies, specifically to the Advance Metering Infrastructure at secondary distribution network, this impact can be evaluated even at the customer level. Thus, this paper analyzes the consumption behavior and the impact that this crisis has had using Smart Meter data. The proposed approach includes the selection and normalization of features, automatic clustering, the obtaining of the estimated consumption without considering the crisis (at short and mid-terms) and the impact evaluation. The proposed approach has been tested on a case with a real Smart Meter infrastructure from Manzanilla (Huelva, Spain). The results of this use case showed that residential customers have increased their consumption around 15% during full lockdown and 7.5% during the reopening period. In contrast, globally, non-residential customers have decreased their consumption 38% during full lockdown and 14.5% during the reopening period. However, referring to non-residential customers, five different consumption profiles were found with different short-term and mid-term behaviors during the COVID crisis. The different behavior found shows customers who have maintained their normal consumption during the lockdown, others who have reduced it (to a greater or lesser extent) and have not recovered it after the removal of the restrictions, and others who have reduced the consumption but then they recovered it when the restrictions were removed. The metadata of the customers in each behavior cluster found are highly correlated to the restrictions imposed to control the spread of the virus. This study shows evidence about the proposed approach usefulness to analyze the behavior and the impact at customer level during the COVID-19 crisis.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Ambient Air Quality in China: A Quasi-Difference-in-Difference Approach

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has provided a distinct opportunity to explore the mechanisms by which human activities affect air quality and pollution emissions. We conduct a quasi-difference-in-differences (DID) analysis of the impacts of lockdown measures on air pollution during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in China. Our study covers 367 cities from the beginning of the lockdown on 23 January 2020 until April 22, two weeks after the lockdown in the epicenter was lifted. Static and dynamic analysis of the average treatment effects on the treated is conducted for the air quality index (AQI) and six criteria pollutants. The results indicate that, first, on average, the AQI decreased by about 7%. However, it was still over the threshold set by the World Health Organization. Second, we detect heterogeneous changes in the level of different pollutants, which suggests heterogeneous impacts of the lockdown on human activities: carbon monoxide (CO) had the biggest drop, about 30%, and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) had the second-biggest drop, 20%. In contrast, ozone (O₃) increased by 3.74% due to the changes in the NO_x/VOCs caused by the decrease in NO_x, the decrease of O₃ titration, and particulate matter concentration. Third, air pollution levels rebounded immediately after the number of infections dropped, which indicates a swift recovery of human activities. This study provides insights into the implementation of environmental policies in China and other developing countries.

How did the German and other European electricity systems react to the COVID-19 pandemic?

The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic led to decreases in electricity demand and a rising share of Renewable Energy Sources in various countries. In Germany, the average proportion of net electricity generation via Renewable Energy Sources rose above 55 % in the first half of 2020, as compared to 47 % for the same period in 2019. Given these altered circumstances, in this paper we analyze how the German and other European electricity systems behaved during the COVID-19 pandemic. We use data visualization and descriptive statistics to evaluate common figures for electricity systems and markets, comparing developments during the COVID-19 pandemic with those of previous years. Our evaluation reveals noticeable changes in electricity consumption, generation, prices, and imports/exports. However, concerning grid stability and ancillary services, we do not observe any irregularities. Discussing the role of various flexibility options during the COVID-19 pandemic, a relatively higher grid capacity resulting from a decreased electricity consumption, in particular, may have contributed to grid stability.

Impacts of COVID-19 on energy demand and consumption: Challenges, lessons and emerging opportunities

COVID-19 has caused great challenges to the energy industry. Potential new practices and social forms being facilitated by the pandemics are having impacts on energy demand and consumption. Spatial and temporal heterogeneities of impacts appear gradually due to the dynamics of pandemics and mitigation measures. This paper overviews the impacts and challenges of COVID-19 pandemics on energy demand and consumption and highlights energy-related lessons and emerging opportunities. The discussion on energy-related issues is divided into four main sections: emergency situation and its impacts, environmental impacts and stabilising energy demand, recovering energy demand, and lessons and emerging opportunities. The changes in energy requirements are compared and analysed from multiple perspectives according to available data and information. In general, although the overall energy demand declines, the spatial and temporal variations are complicated. The energy intensity has presented apparent changes, the extra energy for COVID-19 fighting is non-negligible for stabilising energy demand, and the energy recovery in different regions presents significant differences. A crucial issue has been to allocate and find energy-related emerging opportunities for the post pandemics. This study could offer a direction in opening new avenues for increasing energy efficiency and promoting energy saving.

Effective Management of Energy Consumption during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of ICT Solutions

This research tackles effective and functional management practices in energy consumption using advanced technological solutions to mitigate unexpected events. This study specifically focuses on the recent COVID-19 pandemic that led to a reduction in energy consumption and therefore meddled with the project management’s status quo for the energy sources. Moreover, this research analyzes the role of information and communication technology (ICT) solutions in energy management before and after the recent coronavirus pandemic turmoil. This study also examined the role and place of sustainable energy resources in the effective management of energy consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic. The main purpose of this research is to demonstrate how the recent coronavirus pandemic affected energy consumption and energy prices in many countries and how it paved the way for the new ICT in managing energy consumption. This study elaborated a model to show how these changes evolved in selected European Union (EU) Member States. It turns out that adjusted electricity consumption, as well as the average daily spot electricity prices for the baseload power in the EU countries, declined, and this trend is likely to continue in the next years to come. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, substantial changes in the economy led to reduced office space usage, cutting commuting and business trips, and bringing commercial travel almost to a halt, further shifting the energy balance towards renewable energy sources (RES). Besides, it becomes apparent that ICT solutions used in maintaining and superintending the energy balance are gaining popularity and wide recognition worldwide and will help pave the way towards modern and smart high-renewables grids.

More Is Not Enough: A Deeper Understanding of the COVID-19 Impacts on Healthcare, Energy and Environment Is Crucial

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has magnified the insufficient readiness of humans in dealing with such an unexpected occurrence. During the pandemic, sustainable development goals have been hindered severely. Various observations and lessons have been highlighted to emphasise local impacts on a single region or single sector, whilst the holistic and coupling impacts are rarely investigated. This study overviews the structural changes and spatial heterogeneities of changes in healthcare, energy and environment, and offers perspectives for the in-depth understanding of the COVID-19 impacts on the three sectors, in particular the cross-sections of them. Practical observations are summarised through the broad overview. A novel concept of the healthcare-energy-environment nexus under climate change constraints is proposed and discussed, to illustrate the relationships amongst the three sectors and further analyse the dynamics of the attention to healthcare, energy and environment in view of decision-makers. The society is still on the way to understanding the impacts of the whole episode of COVID-19 on healthcare, energy, environment and beyond. The raised nexus thinking could contribute to understanding the complicated COVID-19 impacts and guiding sustainable future planning.