A drop in consumption of 3.800 billion dollars and 147 million jobs lost, but at the text itself a record reduction in greenhouse gases: it is the cost of the Covid-19 pandemic paid so far by the world. To do the accounts is an international study coordinated by the University of Sydney, published in the journal Plos One.
"We are experiencing the worst economic shock since the Great Depression and at the same time having the largest drop in greenhouse gas emissions since we started using fossil fuels," comments research coordinator Arunima Malik. The numbers say it clearly.
In addition to the 4.2% drop in consumption, equal to Germany's GDP, and the workforce (always 4.2%), wage incomes also dropped by 2,100 billion (-6%). A total of 38 regions in the world and 26 sectors were analyzed, translating data from 12 different languages. The transport and tourism sectors were the most affected, while geographically China, Europe and the United States, with multiple cascading effects on the entire world economy, due to globalization.
Instead, those who guarded us were the environment. In fact, the lowest level of greenhouse gas emissions ever observed was reached, fell by 2.5 billion tons (-4.6%), and Pm2.5 (fine particulate matter) also fell by 3.8%, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide (fossil fuel emissions related to respiratory diseases) of 2.9%.