ORLANDO, Fla. – One of the big stories of the pandemic was the recovery of the environment when the entire world suddenly came to a standstill.
Below we have a graphic from Climate Central that shows the dip in emissions in 2020. As great as that news would seem, there was little help in slowing the CO2 impacts.
Most of that drop in 2020 happened early, with the biggest drop coming in April when everything shut down. As the year went on, lockdowns ended, restrictions pulled back, and emissions started to climb.
So, the drop in emissions had little to no effect on global warming. In March, the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii reported a record CO2 level of more than 420 parts per million.