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Business News/ News / World/  Covid-19 provided only a brief respite to the environment
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Covid-19 provided only a brief respite to the environment

Industrial emissions are once again exceeding those in 2019, but there are enough clues on how to do better for the planet

File photo HTPremium
File photo HT

Soon after his inauguration on 20 January, new US President Joe Biden signed an executive order for the US to rejoin The Paris Agreement, committing his country to voluntary emissions cuts. Even more importantly, he signed orders to push businesses to monitor social costs of carbon emissions. The same week, in the American private sector, Tesla boss Elon Musk pledged a $100 million prize for the best carbon-capture technology.

It’s not unusual for governments and business leaders to talk about the environment and what needs to be done about it. However, the timing of these two announcements from the US is significant. They come at a time when the world is preoccupied with combating a deadly pandemic. Last year, when economic activity slowed due to the pandemic, the general feeling was that it might have had a positive impact on global warming due to a reduction in emissions.

However, after a drop during the lockdown, emissions in most categories rebounded and have now exceeded emissions in 2019. This has been especially true post-August, according to data collected by Carbon Monitor, a global collaboration of 10 research groups that tracks emissions.


At a country level, the pace of the rebound has varied. Some countries, notably China, dealt with the virus early, and kick-started their economy relatively quickly. As early as April, its industrial emissions were exceeding its 2019 levels. In comparison, April was a full and hard lockdown month for India, and its average monthly industrial emissions dropped to one-third of its April 2019 levels.

Among major economies, India, which had one of the strictest lockdowns, was among the most impacted. In the quarter to June, India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth fell by 23.9 percent over the year-ago period. It was only in August that the monthly average of India’s industrial emissions rebounded to 90% of its corresponding 2019 levels. And in October and November, the country’s average monthly emissions were exceeding its corresponding 2019 values.


However, there are interesting exceptions to the equation between emissions and economic activity. For example, in the US, a study by research group Rhodium found that overall US greenhouse gas emissions dropped by about 10% due to the slowdown in economic activity, and were lower than their 1990 levels for the first time.

In the US, emissions from power supply also dropped by 10%, even as power demand dropped by only 2%. The underlying reason behind this drop holds one key to environmental problems: alternative, renewable sources of power. The US has been slowly shifting to renewable sources of power like hydro, wind and solar, and these now account for 18% of its supply.

Turning to alternative sources is a key solution, but it’s not the only one. When Elon Musk announced his $100 million prize for carbon-capture technology, many said the world already had one: trees. The Amazon rainforest, which is spread across Brazil (60%), Peru (13%), Columbia (10%) and a few other Latin American countries, absorbs 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year (or 5% of annual emissions).

However, the bad news is that the deforestation of the Amazon touched its highest level since 2008, according to Brazil’s space agency, INPE. It has accelerated since Jair Bolsonaro took over as Brazil’s president in January 2019, promising development above all else. Bowing to international pressure, Bolsonaro had imposed a 60 day ban on fire setting in the Amazon in August 2019. However, during the pandemic, deforestation has worsened once again.


In countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, rainforests have been cleared (usually burnt) to make way for palm trees, to cater to the growing demand for palm oil across the world. Indonesia and Malaysia account for 85% of palm oil production, with the demand primarily driven by India and China, followed by Netherlands, Spain and Italy.

The pandemic may have given a temporary reprieve in terms of emissions but has added to the environmental crisis in other ways. OceanAsia, a Hong Kong-based environmental group, estimates that about 52 billion face masks were made in 2020. Of this, about 1.56 billion might end up in the oceans. While masks are the most visible wastage of the pandemic, there is also a growing use of plastics with the rise in e-commerce. Already, plastics have filled landfills globally. While plastic recycling has picked up in recent years, it is yet to achieve scale.


The biggest challenge facing the world today is to convince people, who see a short run tradeoff between livelihoods and environmental protection that there is no such tradeoff in the long run. Environmental protection will be key to livelihoods and lives.

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Published: 26 Jan 2021, 12:16 PM IST
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