Webinar: What impact is Covid-19 having on global CO2 emissions?

Carbon Brief hosted its first-ever webinar yesterday and a video (above) of the recording is now available on YouTube.

The topic for discussion was: “What impact is Covid-19 having on global emissions?” Carbon Brief’s Leo Hickman and Dr Simon Evans both moderated the event, which featured a panel of leading climate scientists and analysts who have each recently published their own findings on this topic.

Prof Corinne Le Quéré CBE, from the Global Carbon Project and University of East Anglia, spoke about being the lead author on the first peer-reviewed study examining this topic, which was published in Nature Climate Change on Tuesday. Carbon Brief has published a detailed summary of the paper.

Prof Richard Betts MBE, head of climate impacts at the Met Office Hadley Centre and University of Exeter, explained his recent analysis – which was co-authored by colleagues at the Met Office and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and published by Carbon Brief – showing that CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere have actually continued to rise during the pandemic.

Lauri Myllyvirta, a Helsinki-based analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, discussed what impact the lockdown has had on emissions in China and India. Carbon Brief has published a range of his analysis about these key emitting nations over recent weeks, including the first research to show that China’s emissions fell by a quarter. More recently, his co-authored analysis showed that India’s emissions have fallen for the first time in four decades.

Dr Zeke Hausfather, the Breakthrough Institute’s director of climate and energy who regularly writes for Carbon Brief, spoke about his research, which includes examining whether the pandemic might mean that 2019 comes to be seen at the year when global emissions peaked.

Each panelist was invited to bring one to two slides to show when explaining their research, which can now be downloaded via Google Drive.

The panelists also answered a range of questions submitted by the audience.

Carbon Brief hopes to host more webinars in the future. If you have suggestions for topics and panelists, please send them to [email protected].

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