The Influence of COVID-19 on Global CO2 Emissions and Climate Change: A Perspective from Malaysia

The rapid spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in early 2020 prompted a global lockdown from March to July 2020. Due to strict lockdown measures, many countries experienced economic downturns, negatively affecting many industries including energy, manufacturing, agriculture, finance, health...

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Published inSustainability Vol. 13; no. 15; p. 8461
Main Authors Tan, Chung Hong, Ong, Mei Yin, Nomanbhay, Saifuddin M., Shamsuddin, Abd Halim, Show, Pau Loke
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.08.2021
Subjects
Agricultural economics
Burning
Carbon dioxide
Climate change
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Emissions
Fossil fuels
Greenhouse effect
Greenhouse gases
Natural gas
Surface temperature
Sustainability
Tourism
Viral diseases
China
Malaysia
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Summary:The rapid spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in early 2020 prompted a global lockdown from March to July 2020. Due to strict lockdown measures, many countries experienced economic downturns, negatively affecting many industries including energy, manufacturing, agriculture, finance, healthcare, food, education, tourism, and sports. Despite this, the COVID-19 pandemic provided a rare opportunity to observe the impacts of worldwide lockdown on global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and climate change. Being the main greenhouse gas responsible for rising global surface temperature, CO2 is released to the atmosphere primarily by burning fossil fuels. Compared to 2019, CO2 emissions for the world and Malaysia decreased significantly by 4.02% (−1365.83 MtCO2) and 9.7% (−225.97 MtCO2) in 2020. However, this is insufficient to cause long-term impacts on global CO2 levels and climate change. Therefore, in this review, we explored the effects of worldwide lockdown on global CO2 levels, the impacts of national lockdown on Malaysia’s CO2 emissions, and the influence of climate change in Malaysia.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su13158461