The world is currently shadowed by the pandemic of COVID-19. The death toll and confirmed cases have kept increasing in most nations. While COVID-19 is a monumental global public health disaster in human history, it presents various far-reaching and yet-to-be determined implications on air quality and climate system. Social distancing policy, suspended economic activities and traffic have been reported to improve local air quality of many cities. Conversely, a seemingly correlation between poor air quality and high death rate due to COVID-19 remains a question, and an increasing amount of studies has suggested that aerosol particles could promote the spreading of SAR-Cov-2 virus, the virus that causes COVID-19. The impacts due to public policy during COVID-19 on air quality and climate change could be long-lasting, and/or short-lived and their magnitudes and signs are currently subject of large volume ongoing studies. This article aims to provide a brief review of state-of-the-art research in air quality and climate change aspects and by raising some important science questions to inspire follow-up studies.

Reference:
Ching, J. and M. Kajino, 2020. Rethinking Air Quality and Climate Change after COVID-19, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17, 5167,
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17145167

Graphical Abstract