The Irish Times view on global warming: There can be no return to normal

Failure to incorporate a green recovery at the heart of the global response to Covid-19 risks lengthening the economic shock

Parched land around the Lake Wegnia, in Sahel region of Koulikoro, Mali, in November last year. Photograph: Arouna Sissoko/Reuters

Parched land around the Lake Wegnia, in Sahel region of Koulikoro, Mali, in November last year. Photograph: Arouna Sissoko/Reuters

Satellite images have been providing colour-coded animations of air-pollution decline across the world coinciding with the spread of Covid-19 and billions of people going into lockdown. Noxious gases associated with traffic and heavy industry have declined sharply. The skies have never been clearer. Eased of the shackles of human activity, it is as if Planet Earth has been allowed breathe normally again.

Air pollution effects are obvious; reduction in carbon emissions less so because of how they are audited. But indications suggest global CO2 will be cut by 5 per cent this year – more than during any previous economic crisis or period of war.

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