Environmental changes during lockdown

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused industrial activity to shut down and cancelled flights and other journeys, slashing greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution around the world. Streets are empty, cities are silent, factories are closed and skies are quiet. Surely this has to be good for the environment. If there is something positive to take from this terrible crisis, it could be that it’s offered a taste of the air we might breathe in a low-carbon future. Well-resourced healthcare systems are essential to protect us from health security threats, including climate change. The support to resuscitate the economy after the pandemic should promote health, equity, and environmental protection. When we eventually overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, we can hopefully hold on to that sense of shared humanity in order to rebuild our social and economic systems to make them better, more resilient, and compassionate. Social distancing, inevitably, implies hits to economic activity, which implies a reduction in emissions. That risks linking a clearly bad thing (a pandemic) to a long-desired good (carbon mitigation). The financial and social support packages to maintain and eventually resuscitate the global economy post-pandemic should therefore promote health, equity, and environmental protection.