Saving the world from your couch: the heterogeneous medium-run benefits of COVID-19 lockdowns on air pollution
In Spring 2020, COVID-19 led to an unprecedented halt in public and economic life across the globe. In an otherwise tragic time, this provides a unique natural experiment to investigate the environmental impact of such a (temporary) ‘de-globalization’. Here, we estimate the medium-run impact of a ba...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2021-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abee4d |
| _version_ | 1797747796807254016 |
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| author | Jean-Philippe Bonardi Quentin Gallea Dimitrija Kalanoski Rafael Lalive Raahil Madhok Frederik Noack Dominic Rohner Tommaso Sonno |
| author_facet | Jean-Philippe Bonardi Quentin Gallea Dimitrija Kalanoski Rafael Lalive Raahil Madhok Frederik Noack Dominic Rohner Tommaso Sonno |
| author_sort | Jean-Philippe Bonardi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In Spring 2020, COVID-19 led to an unprecedented halt in public and economic life across the globe. In an otherwise tragic time, this provides a unique natural experiment to investigate the environmental impact of such a (temporary) ‘de-globalization’. Here, we estimate the medium-run impact of a battery of COVID-19 related lockdown measures on air quality across 162 countries, going beyond the existing short-run estimates from a limited number of countries. In doing so, we leverage a new dataset categorizing lockdown measures and tracking their implementation and release, extending to 31 August 2020. We find that domestic and international lockdown measures overall led to a decline in PM2.5 pollution by 45% and 35%, respectively. This substantial impact persists in the medium-run, even as lockdowns are lifted, there is, however, substantial heterogeneity across different types of lockdown measures, different countries, and different sources of pollution. We show that some country trajectories are much more appealing (with fewer COVID-19 casualties, less economic downturn and bigger pollution reductions) than others. Our results have important policy implications and highlight the potential to ‘build back better’ a sustainable economy where pollution can be curbed in a less economically costly way than during the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:55:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6bed8cd1cf724c59ad744ecca8cfa3d3 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:55:44Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-6bed8cd1cf724c59ad744ecca8cfa3d32023-08-09T14:55:53ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262021-01-0116707401010.1088/1748-9326/abee4dSaving the world from your couch: the heterogeneous medium-run benefits of COVID-19 lockdowns on air pollutionJean-Philippe Bonardi0Quentin Gallea1Dimitrija Kalanoski2Rafael Lalive3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1938-692XRaahil Madhok4https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4434-2785Frederik Noack5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5747-4368Dominic Rohner6https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2660-4550Tommaso Sonno7https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5697-9647Faculty of Business and Economics (HEC Lausanne), University of Lausanne , Lausanne, Switzerland; Enterprise for Society (E4S) Center , Lausanne, SwitzerlandDepartment of Economics, University of Zurich , Zurich, Switzerland; Enterprise for Society (E4S) Center , Lausanne, SwitzerlandAlliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester , Manchester, United Kingdom; Enterprise for Society (E4S) Center , Lausanne, SwitzerlandFaculty of Business and Economics (HEC Lausanne), University of Lausanne , Lausanne, Switzerland; Enterprise for Society (E4S) Center , Lausanne, SwitzerlandDepartment of Food and Resource Economics, University of British Columbia , Vancouver, CanadaDepartment of Food and Resource Economics, University of British Columbia , Vancouver, CanadaFaculty of Business and Economics (HEC Lausanne), University of Lausanne , Lausanne, Switzerland; Enterprise for Society (E4S) Center , Lausanne, SwitzerlandDepartment of Economics, University of Bologna , Bologna, Italy; Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics and Political Science , London, United KingdomIn Spring 2020, COVID-19 led to an unprecedented halt in public and economic life across the globe. In an otherwise tragic time, this provides a unique natural experiment to investigate the environmental impact of such a (temporary) ‘de-globalization’. Here, we estimate the medium-run impact of a battery of COVID-19 related lockdown measures on air quality across 162 countries, going beyond the existing short-run estimates from a limited number of countries. In doing so, we leverage a new dataset categorizing lockdown measures and tracking their implementation and release, extending to 31 August 2020. We find that domestic and international lockdown measures overall led to a decline in PM2.5 pollution by 45% and 35%, respectively. This substantial impact persists in the medium-run, even as lockdowns are lifted, there is, however, substantial heterogeneity across different types of lockdown measures, different countries, and different sources of pollution. We show that some country trajectories are much more appealing (with fewer COVID-19 casualties, less economic downturn and bigger pollution reductions) than others. Our results have important policy implications and highlight the potential to ‘build back better’ a sustainable economy where pollution can be curbed in a less economically costly way than during the COVID-19 pandemic.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abee4dCOVID-19pollutionlockdownsustainable developmentenvironmentglobalization |
| spellingShingle | Jean-Philippe Bonardi Quentin Gallea Dimitrija Kalanoski Rafael Lalive Raahil Madhok Frederik Noack Dominic Rohner Tommaso Sonno Saving the world from your couch: the heterogeneous medium-run benefits of COVID-19 lockdowns on air pollution Environmental Research Letters COVID-19 pollution lockdown sustainable development environment globalization |
| title | Saving the world from your couch: the heterogeneous medium-run benefits of COVID-19 lockdowns on air pollution |
| title_full | Saving the world from your couch: the heterogeneous medium-run benefits of COVID-19 lockdowns on air pollution |
| title_fullStr | Saving the world from your couch: the heterogeneous medium-run benefits of COVID-19 lockdowns on air pollution |
| title_full_unstemmed | Saving the world from your couch: the heterogeneous medium-run benefits of COVID-19 lockdowns on air pollution |
| title_short | Saving the world from your couch: the heterogeneous medium-run benefits of COVID-19 lockdowns on air pollution |
| title_sort | saving the world from your couch the heterogeneous medium run benefits of covid 19 lockdowns on air pollution |
| topic | COVID-19 pollution lockdown sustainable development environment globalization |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abee4d |
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