Barua Suborna, Nath Shobod Deba
Department of International Business, University of Dhaka, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh.
J Clean Prod. 2021 May 20;298:126755. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126755. Epub 2021 Mar 18.
The COVID-19 pandemic is producing significant economic and social cost globally. As a cure or a treatment is yet unavailable, social distancing is considered the key way to prevent it. Mobility restrictions and confinement measures implemented across the world are considered to help reduce air pollution. However, empirical examination of the link between public mobility changes and air pollution during the COVID-19 period remains unavailable. This paper examines the short and long run impacts of mobility changes on carbon monoxide (CO) emissions by employing three dynamic estimators on a panel of 35 countries covering daily data from 15 February to April 17, 2020 - a period when most countries went into strict lockdowns. Findings show a consistent evidence at the all-countries level and across regions that long-run indoor mobility increases reduce CO emissions, while outdoor mobility increases across places such as transit stations, workplaces, grocery & pharmacies, retail & recreation, and parks drive up emissions. Among the regions studied, Europe excluding the EU and the UK (-8.4%), followed by East Asia and the Pacific (-4.3%), sees a larger emissions reduction from increased indoor mobility. While short-run effects are limited in general, emissions in US-Canada respond to indoor and outdoor mobility changes in both the short (1.1%) and long run (-1.4%). Findings overall indicate that reducing unnecessary outdoor mobility could help in maintaining air quality in the post-pandemic world.
新冠疫情正在全球造成巨大的经济和社会成本。由于尚未找到治愈方法或治疗手段，保持社交距离被视为预防疫情的关键方式。世界各地实施的出行限制和封锁措施被认为有助于减少空气污染。然而，关于新冠疫情期间公共出行变化与空气污染之间联系的实证研究仍付阙如。本文通过运用三种动态估计方法，对35个国家组成的面板进行研究，考察出行变化对一氧化碳（CO）排放的短期和长期影响，该面板涵盖了2020年2月15日至4月17日的每日数据，这一时期大多数国家都实施了严格的封锁措施。研究结果表明，在所有国家层面和各个地区都有一致的证据显示，长期来看，室内出行的增加会减少一氧化碳排放，而在诸如公交站、工作场所、杂货店和药店、零售和娱乐场所及公园等地室外出行的增加则会导致排放上升。在所研究的地区中，不包括欧盟和英国的欧洲地区（-8.4%），其次是东亚和太平洋地区（-4.3%），室内出行增加带来的排放减少幅度更大。虽然总体而言短期影响有限，但美国-加拿大地区的排放无论在短期（1.1%）还是长期（-1.4%）都对室内和室外出行变化做出反应。总体研究结果表明，减少不必要的室外出行有助于在疫情后世界维持空气质量。
