Planes grounded, events canceled, factories shut down: the coronavirus weighs on the world economy, with the unexpected corollary a fall in greenhouse gas emissions in industrial countries. But this good news for the environment could only be temporary.
Various study projects regarding the impact of the virus on the environment and social life are underway by different researchers. Among these are; Abderahmane Noui; Lamia Al-Naama; Sharooq Talab Jafar and others.
According to the researchers, while the world is being asked to wash their hands to fight the pandemic, the UN recalled that around 2.2 billion people do not have access to drinking water and that 4.2 billion – more than half of the world’s population – are deprived of safe sanitation systems.
COVID-19 vs. the environment
There has been much talk in the media about the potential climate impact of the coronavirus-related shutdown.
Europe has come to a virtual standstill, with the majority of countries in some kind of lockdown. Many assume that this is good for the environment.
Data from the Sentinel-5P satellite shows that nitrogen dioxide air pollution levels have plummeted across Europe since the pandemic. NO2 is emitted in most cases by burning fossil fuels at high temperatures, as in internal combustion engines. However, Vincent-Henri Peuch, Director of the Copernic Atmosphere Monitoring Service told Euro news that the importance of the drop should not be overstated.
“I don’t think we can say that there is any long term significance in this decrease. However, in the short term, I think these decreases are useful. The level of air pollution is affecting cardio-pulmonary health in general, so having less pollution at a time where this virus is around can only be a good thing,” he said.
There could also be another potential benefit of today’s lower air pollution; there’s a chance that COVID-19 may be transported and remain viable on particles of pollution. As yet there is no scientific consensus on this issue, but Alessandro Miani, President of the Italian Society of Environmental Medicine, certainly thinks it is a viable theory:
“Particulate matter, when it is at a certain density and there is a lot of smog, a lot of atmospheric pollution, can be considered a sort of highway for the acceleration of the epidemic,” Miani told Euro news via videoconference.
Record CO2 levels
Short-term air pollution, which lasts for a few hours or a few days in the atmosphere, has dropped, and that is considered positive news.
However, despite the economic slowdown, greenhouse gases are still being emitted. Indeed, Oksana Tarasova, Head of Atmospheric Environment Research Division at the World Meteorological Organization, says carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are still at record highs:
“If we look at how the levels of atmospheric CO2 are formed, it is not annual emissions in particular which are controlling the levels; it is the whole accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere since pre-industrial times which form the current level.
“So, the reduced emissions within one particular year of this scale are very unlikely to have an impact on global levels of carbon dioxide,” she explained.
Tarasova is stressing that one has to grasp the difference between a cut in emissions – something some countries will see this year, even if it is only a small percentage reduction – and the actual levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. We would have to look back many millions of years into the past to find CO2 concentrations as high as they are now, and at that time sea levels were tens of meters higher and average temperatures globally were several degrees warmer.
Climate lessons from coronavirus
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an immediate impact on our home and work environments, but when it comes to the environment, the picture is far less clear. Vincent-Henri Peuch believes the current situation may have a big influence on our approach to pollution, moving forward:
“The lessons learned once we will have this crisis behind us will be very important to (rethink) the problem of air pollution,” he says. “Unfortunately climate change will still be around and will not be changed by this crisis.”
Everyone included: Social impact of COVID-19
“We are facing a global health crisis unlike any in the 75-year history of the United Nations — one that is killing people, spreading human suffering and upending people’s lives,” said The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA). But this is much more than a health crisis. It is a human, economic and social crisis. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which has been characterized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), is attacking societies at their core.
UN DESA is a pioneer of sustainable development and the home of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), where each goal finds its space and where all stakeholders can do their part to leave no one behind. UN DESA through the Division for Inclusive Social Development (DISD), monitors national and global socio-economic trends, identifies emerging issues, and assesses their implications for social policy at the national and international levels. To this end, we are a leading analytical voice for promoting social inclusion, reducing inequalities and eradicating poverty.
The COVID-19 outbreak affects all segments of the population and is particularly detrimental to members of those social groups in the most vulnerable situations, continues to affect populations, including people living in poverty situations, older persons, persons with disabilities, youth, and indigenous peoples. Early evidence indicates that the health and economic impacts of the virus are being borne disproportionately by poor people. For example, homeless people, because they may be unable to safely shelter in place, are highly exposed to the danger of the virus. People without access to running water, refugees, migrants, or displaced persons also stand to suffer disproportionately both from the pandemic and its aftermath-whether due to limited movement, fewer employment opportunities, increased xenophobia, etc.
If not properly addressed through policy the social crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic may also increase inequality, exclusion, discrimination and global unemployment in the medium and long term. Comprehensive, universal social protection systems, when in place, play a much durable role in protecting workers and in reducing the prevalence of poverty, since they act as automatic stabilizers. That is, they provide basic income security at all times, thereby enhancing people’s capacity to manage and overcome shocks.
The Ethiopian Herald April 21/2020
BY BACHA ZEWDIE
