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Near-real-time monitoring of global CO₂ emissions reveals the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

Liu, Z; Ciais, P; Deng, Z; Lei, R; Davis, SJ; Feng, S; Zheng, B; ... Schellnhuber, HJ; + view all (2020) Near-real-time monitoring of global CO₂ emissions reveals the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nature Communications , 11 , Article 5172. 10.1038/s41467-020-18922-7. Green open access

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Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting human activities, and in turn energy use and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Here we present daily estimates of country-level CO2 emissions for different sectors based on near-real-time activity data. The key result is an abrupt 8.8% decrease in global CO2 emissions (−1551 Mt CO2) in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. The magnitude of this decrease is larger than during previous economic downturns or World War II. The timing of emissions decreases corresponds to lockdown measures in each country. By July 1st, the pandemic’s effects on global emissions diminished as lockdown restrictions relaxed and some economic activities restarted, especially in China and several European countries, but substantial differences persist between countries, with continuing emission declines in the U.S. where coronavirus cases are still increasing substantially.

Type: Article
Title: Near-real-time monitoring of global CO₂ emissions reveals the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18922-7
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18922-7
Language: English
Additional information: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Keywords: Atmospheric science, Climate sciences, Environmental sciences, Environmental social sciences
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10114138
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