Over the past few years, the global warming issue has worsened due to the increasing use of fossil fuels, in many countries as they transform from a developing to a developed country. However, with the current COVID-19 situation, the use and consumption of fossil fuels have drastically decreased especially in China which has been the “main driver of global warming” (The New York Times). With multiple factories, refineries, and flights stopped, the usage of fossil fuels has significantly decreased, therefore decreasing the emissions of greenhouse gases. China normally experiences a dip in coal consumption due to the Chinese New Year (CNY) holidays where businesses close down. However, once the holidays end, the consumption of coal significantly increases to its original amount. This year, the consumption of coal did not rebound after the CNY holidays due to the lockdown imposed to reduce COVID-19 transmissions. As a result, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has noticed that “NO2 pollution in some cities fell by as much as 60% compared to the same period in 2019” thus improving the air quality as well as improving the  global warming situation. This has not only been seen in China but many other countries such as the US and India. 

Nevertheless, now that the number of COVID-19 cases are decreasing, countries are slowly easing their precautionary measures (e.g lockdown), therefore, allowing factories and refineries to reopen, and flights to take place. As a result of this, many people, including myself, are concerned about the environment. We can only hope that the environmental problems do not worsen.