Impact of Covid-19 on China's CO₂ Emissions

Affected by covid-19, a large number of economic activities in China slowed down or even stopped in the first quarter of 2020. The indicators of average daily coal consumption of power generation enterprises, coal handling capacity of coal transportation ports, oil refinery operation rate, steel plant operation rate, coking plant operation rate, railway and civil aviation passenger number all reached new lows over the years. Overall, the outbreak has resulted in a significant reduction of about 20% in China's CO₂ emissions in the first quarter compared with the same period of 2019. In the short term, the expansion of investment in response to the epidemic will lead to a slowdown in the pace and intensity of China's carbon dioxide emissions. In the long run,"new infrastructure" will contribute to the transformation of China's energy structure and the realization of the 2030 climate goals. Based on this, the following are proposed:(1)expand investment to realize industry low carbonization;(2)continue to cut overcapacity and optimize energy-producing structure while expanding investment;(3)vitalize rural areas in a low-carbon way;(4)accelerate the construction of national carbon market; and(5)accelerate research and development, demonstration, and transformation of low carbon technology.