Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions in China's transportation sector

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has put the whole world in a great lockdown and greatly changed our lives. The lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected the transportation industry in China. In this paper, energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions of fuel vehicles and battery electric vehicles in China during the COVID-19 pandemic was estimated and analyzed. The impact of COVID-19 pandemic was analyzed. The study period is taken from September 2019 to April 2020, and the period from September 2018 to August 2019 is taken for comparison. Moreover, energy consumption and CO2 emissions of fuel vehicles during SARS epidemic was also analyzed. The related study period is taken from January 2003 to August 2003. The results show COVID-19 has a much larger impact on transportation energy consumption and CO2 emissions than SARS. After the COVID-19 pandemic, energy conservation and emission reduction still have a long way to go. Determining the energy consumption and emissions in transportation sector during the COVID-19 pandemic will provide the government with a reference for future energy conservation and emission reduction in transportation sector and the further promotion of battery electric vehicles.