On Reduced Consumption of Fossil Fuels in 2020 and Its Consequences in Global Environment and Exergy Demand

A Rashedi,Mirjam Jonkman,Taslima Khanam

doi:10.3390/en13226048

A Rashedi, Mirjam Jonkman + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/en13226048

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Journal: Energies	Publication Date: Nov 19, 2020
Citations: 29	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Charles Darwin University, University of Queensland

Abstract

As the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a sudden and abrupt change in global energy landscape. Traditional fossil fuels that serve as the linchpin of modern civilization have found their consumption has rapidly fallen across most categories due to strict lockdown and stringent measures that have been adopted to suppress the disease. These changes consequently steered various environmental benefits across the world in recent time. The present article is an attempt to investigate these environmental benefits and reversals that have been materialized in this unfolding situation due to reduced consumption of fossil fuels. The life cycle assessment tool was used hereby to evaluate nine environmental impacts and one energy based impact. These impacts include ozone formation (terrestrial ecosystems), terrestrial acidification, freshwater eutrophication, marine eutrophication, terrestrial ecotoxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, marine ecotoxicity, land use, mineral resources scarcity, and cumulative exergy demand. Outcomes from the study demonstrate that COVID-19 has delivered impressive changes in global environment and life cycle exergy demand, with about 11–25% curtailment in all the above-mentioned impacts in 2020 in comparison to their corresponding readings in 2019.

Highlights

The novel Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which was first reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, has since spread rapidly across the globe
Air pollution intensifies the photochemical reaction of NOx and non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs), which results in an increased concentration of ozone in the atmosphere
The restoration of the environment evidenced in this study suggests future studies should focus on whether some form of temporary shutdown measure carries ample potential to restore the global environment

Summary

Introduction

The novel Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which was first reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, has since spread rapidly across the globe. In a matter of months, 81% of the global workforce of 3.3 billion people have had their workplace fully or partly closed [2] and most of the countries or territories went into lockdown in order to contain the disease These changes, initiated sudden changes in the global environment in numerous ways. The residents of the state of Punjab, India, were able to see the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas for the first time in 30 years from about 200 kilometers away due to a massive drop in air pollution [3] In another instance, Li et al (2020) discovered that several primary pollutants, viz., SO2 , NOx , PM 2.5, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), have diminished by approximately Li et al (2020) discovered that several primary pollutants, viz., SO2 , NOx , PM 2.5, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), have diminished by approximately (abbreviated as, approx. later) 16–26%, 29–47%, 27–46%, and 37–57%, respectively, between January and March, 2020, over the entire Yangtze River Delta region in China, based on the meteorological data obtained from National Climate Data Center of National Oceanic and Atmospheric

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