Penn Pandemic Diary Penn Pandemic Diary, Entry #29: Climate Lessons from a Pandemic

Gautam Suresh is a first year M.S.E. candidate in Nanotechnology, pursuing a certificate in Energy Policy and Management, and is a Perry World House Graduate Associate at the University of Pennsylvania.

The pandemic has shown just how interconnected humanity is, with our lives deeply entrenched with one another.  From affluent Western countries to the slums of South Asia, the invisible enemy known as COVID-19 has upended life. Yet, in spite of all the death and destruction wreaked by the virus, it will pale in comparison to another invisible enemy: climate change.

Given what we’ve seen so far, I can be pessimistic that all the COVID-19 changes will put climate initiatives on the backburner. Yet, the optimist in me points towards a greener, more sustainable future, which will incorporate the many lessons learned from the pandemic.  Here are a few ways to make the current pandemic, an opportunity for progress on climate change.

The plummeting oil prices caused first by a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia and subsequently by cratering demand might be an indication of things to come. Although demand will pick up once the pandemic recedes, the current situation might prove to be detrimental for a lot of large oil and gas companies given how many oar e. There are a few key reasons for this. Firstly, inefficient and highly leveraged companies may face a huge liquidity crisis, with some being forced out of business. Secondly, healthier companies in the industry might accelerate their diversification strategies by pivoting their business models towards other energy segments. Additionally, new oil and gas investments might prove unattractive at current prices and renewables investments could prove to be more attractive. Consequently, the long-term outlook for oil and gas companies does not bode well. Governments must also do their part by removing fossil fuel subsidies and focusing their stimulus packages towards a sustainable, earth-friendly recovery.

COVID-19 is also driving collaboration and innovation by scientists, policymakers, and economists at home and around the world. If such collaboration can continue, we could see new efforts to meet the daunting climate targets outlined in the 2018 report by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). The report warned that the world was not on track to meet the emissions target needed to keep global warming to 1.5o above pre-industrial levels, the threshold set by the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Reckoning with the size of the challenge, and meeting it, will start with collaborative decision making at a local and global level.

We may also finally be able to ‘Bring the climate problem forward’ as Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock, said earlier this year. Humanity waited too long to act against COVID-19, we cannot afford the same mistake with climate. The dangers of the changing climate accumulate over many years, thus making the immediacy of the problem hard to discern. Thus, the pandemic might remind us of the need for increased urgency and decisiveness involved in action against climate change.

Human energy consumption may also be drastically altered after COVID-19. The aviation sector, which has faced the brunt of the pandemic is bound to be stressed for the foreseeable future, further reducing carbon emissions. Working might also become increasingly reliant on a work-from-home model, which will also help reduce emissions from the road transportation sector. The true extent of COVID-19’s impact on climate will take years to comprehend, but it could prove an opportune moment for local and global entities to pivot business models and operations to reflect climate consciousness.

It is incredibly hard to find positives from a global pandemic that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. But in the grand scheme of things, the climate lessons learned from this pandemic might become a blessing in disguise. COVID-19 presents an opportunity for the entire world to reboot its approach towards climate and the future.

The views expressed in the Penn Pandemic Diary are solely the author’s and not those of Penn or Perry World House.