Covid Pandemic Reduced Carbon Emissions; Won't Make A Difference

 Carbon emissions declined in 2020 due to the Covid 
pandemic, but blip won't really have an
effect on climate change. 

We got an update from academics on now much the Covid pandemic has reduced carbon emissions. 

The "good" news is that carbon emissions plunged in 2020 by a record amount.  

The very bad news is two-fold.  The reduction in carbon emissions is basically a drop in the bucket and won't have much if any effect on climate change.

Worse, the price we paid for this year's carbon reductions was so, so not worth the price: Hundreds of thousands killed by the pandemic, and millions upon millions of people suffering because of it. 

According to CNBC:

"Global greenhouse gas emissions plunged by roughly 2.4 billion tons this year, a 7% drop from 2019 and the largest decline on record......according to new research from the University of East Anglia, the University of Exeter and the Global Carbon Project."

When Covid-related lockdowns were most prevalent in the spring, carbon emissions plunged by 17 percent, but recovered to nearly the same levels as 2019 later in the year as restrictions eased, at least temporarily. 

All this accounts for the 7% drop. 

Medical experts are hopeful that next year, with Covid vaccines being distributed, the pandemic will ease and perhaps disappear altogether by Christmas 2021. 

With that, carbon emissions are expected to rise again.  Climate activists are urging governments and industry use the anticipated 2021 economic recovery as an excuse to switch to cleaner energy sources as things ramp up. 

Even with this year's reduction in carbon emissions, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere will continue to rise. Think of CO2 in the atmosphere as water filling a bathtub.  In 2020, the bathtub faucet was turned down, but was still running. That means the bathtub is still filling up, just more slowly. 

To really help with climate change, we'd need to cut an additional 2 billion tons of carbon emissions yearly for the next decade, according to the BBC.  At that point, maybe the drain in the "bathtub" would be partially opened, allowing our metaphorical water (atmospheric CO2 concentrations) to start receding. 

"The atmospheric CO2 level, and consequently the world;s climate, will only stabilize when global CO2 emissions are near zero, " lead researcher Prof. Pierre Friedlingstein from the University of Exeter UK told the BBC.

Meanwhile, the effects of climate change continue to trouble the world.  This year is set to be among the top 5 hottest years on record. The rest of the top 5 have been since 2015.  Disasters likely made worse by climate change, such as intense hurricanes and wildfires, have caused billions in dollars in damage. 

In 2021, many experts say we'll finally start to see some real relief from the Covid pandemic. Unfortunately, the effects of climate change will probably continue to worsen.