Did pandemic disruptions help to slow climate change? No, scientists say

The pandemic has disrupted regular life, travel and business on a massive scale, a phenomenon that is still occurring in 2021. But according to scientists, this disruption of human activity didn't slow climate change apart from a brief dip in emissions in 2020.

According to numerous reports and experts, the answer is clear.

“No,” says Pieter Tans, a climate scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in a phone interview with CTVNews.ca.

In 2020 we did see a brief dip in emissions due to economic slowdowns. But in 2021, the rate of climate change was similar to what it would’ve been if there was no global pandemic at all, Tans confirmed.

According to a report from NOAA released in early November, fossil carbon emissions dropped by 5.4 per cent in 2020, but are expected to have increased again by 4.9 per cent by the end of 2021. The projected CO2 emissions for 2021 are 36.4 billion tonnes.