Did a worldwide lockdown help in the fight against climate change?
By Matthew Grant // 大象传媒 The Social contributor // 14 April 2021
Surely given all the restrictions and lack of activity, lockdown must have given us a boost in the fight against climate change?
If we think back to the start of the first lockdown - remember that time when we thought this whole thing would blow over in just a few weeks? You might remember seeing articles about seeing the peaks of the Himalayas for the first time from India, satellites showing huge drops in pollution in China and so on. People stayed at home, airlines cancelled thousands of flights and the world’s activities came to a halt - all this would point towards lockdown having hugely positive effects on our climate.
So, is it true? Has lockdown helped in the fight against climate change? Unfortunately the short answer is no, it hasn’t. Well... it hasn’t yet.
Well, multiple studies have shown that the lockdowns across the world have, unsurprisingly, led to massive drops in greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, 2020 was estimated to have had the greatest drop in emissions of all time. Amazing right? So the world is fixed and climate change has been averted?
Unfortunately not.
This drop in emissions is almost definitely not going to make an ounce of difference. We would actually have to reproduce around the same drop year on year on year for two, or three, or maybe even four decades in order to put the world on track with the Paris Agreement’s goal. Imagine 40 years of lockdown! No thanks!
In all seriousness, this is really heartbreaking for me to think about. The world was literally on stand by for months and it made no difference. If this didn’t change anything then what are we meant to do to stop this seemingly unstoppable force of climate change?
Covid has caused more harm than we could ever imagine, but we now have a chance to create something good out of this terrible situation
The only way forward is to use this as a lesson: this lack of impact demonstrates to us that in order to properly fight climate change we cannot just be making short term adjustments. We need to put in place policies and systems that can realistically be continued forever, and not just for the duration of a lockdown.
Changes from individuals are, without a doubt, so important in so many ways; however on their own, they are not going to make enough of a difference to reverse or even significantly slow climate change. There’s a famous statistic that only 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions, and fighting climate change will only be possible if these companies are forced into rapidly and drastically changing their ways.
Now, covid’s impact on our economy has been devastating, but within that there is a small silver lining: when governments begin to rebuild their economies, they have the chance to rebuild them onto a green pathway.
Instead of heavily supporting the oil and gas industries, they could invest into renewable and sustainable companies. In doing so, we can fast track the switch from a fossil fuel based economy to a green one. This is referred to as the ‘green recovery’, and in my opinion it is the only sensible option.
Studies have shown that significant change is very achievable through this method. If only 12% of the global covid recovery budget is put towards clean energy over the next four years, we can get the world back on track with the Paris Agreement.
Now, to me that seems like a much more preferable option than doing this whole lockdown thing over and over and over again. Plus, green investments have been shown to quickly increase employment rates, boost the production of new technologies, and be more desirable to investors.
All of these things are great for jump starting dying economies. On top of all this, at some stage the world is going to have to make this switch towards a green economy. Personally, I think it just makes sense to fast track that now when we have been given the chance to, and before climate change makes even more damage.
For once in our history, can we please be proactive instead of reactive? This is the smart thing to do.
Covid has caused more harm than we could ever imagine, but we now have a chance to create something good out of this terrible situation. Let’s make sure that 2021 is not remembered as the time we wasted an opportunity, but is instead the year that climate change begins to end.
