EGU23-10017, updated on 26 Feb 2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-10017
EGU General Assembly 2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Inter-regional environmental imbalance under lasting pandemic exacerbated by residential response

Chunjin Li1, Jintai Lin2, Lulu Chen3, Qi Cui4,5, Yu Liu6,7, Erin E. McDuffie8,9, Mingxi Du10, Hao Kong11, and Jingxu Wang12,13
Chunjin Li et al.
  • 1Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China (chunjinli@pku.edu.cn)
  • 2Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China (linjt@pku.edu.cn)
  • 3Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China (luluchen@pku.edu.cn)
  • 4School of Economics and Management, China University of Petroleum, Qingdao 266580, China (cuiqi@bnu.edu.cn)
  • 5School of Economics and Resource Management, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China (cuiqi@bnu.edu.cn)
  • 6Institutes of Science and Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China (Liuyu@casipm.ac.cn)
  • 7School of Public Policy and Management, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China (Liuyu@casipm.ac.cn)
  • 8Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA (erin.mcduffie@wustl.edu)
  • 9Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada (erin.mcduffie@wustl.edu)
  • 10School of Public Policy and Administration, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China (dumingxi28@pku.edu.cn)
  • 11Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China (kh_konghao@pku.edu.cn)
  • 12Key Laboratory of Physical Oceanography, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266100, China(wangjingxu@ouc.edu.cn)
  • 13College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266100, China (wangjingxu@ouc.edu.cn)

Pandemics greatly affect transportation, economic and household activities and their associated air pollutant emissions. In less affluent regions, household energy use is often the dominant pollution source and is sensitive to the affluence change caused by a persisting pandemic. Air quality studies on COVID-19 have shown declines in pollution levels over industrialized regions as an immediate response to pandemic-caused lockdown and weakened economy. Yet few have considered the response of residential emissions to altered household affluence and energy choice supplemented by social distancing. Here we quantify the potential effects of long-term pandemics on ambient fine particulate matter pollution (PM2.5) and resulting premature mortality worldwide, by comprehensively considering the changes in transportation, economic production and household energy use. We find that a persisting COVID-like pandemic would reduce the global gross domestic product by 11.2% and PM2.5-related mortality by 9.5%. The global mortality decline would reach 13.0% had the response of residential emissions been excluded. Among the 13 aggregated regions worldwide, the least affluent regions exhibit the greatest fractional economic losses with no comparable magnitudes of mortality reduction. This is because their weakened affluence would cause switch to more polluting household energy types on top of longer stay-at-home time, largely offsetting the effect of reduced transportation and economic production. International financial, technological and vaccine aids could reduce such environmental imbalance.

How to cite: Li, C., Lin, J., Chen, L., Cui, Q., Liu, Y., McDuffie, E. E., Du, M., Kong, H., and Wang, J.: Inter-regional environmental imbalance under lasting pandemic exacerbated by residential response, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-10017, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-10017, 2023.