The Era of Coronavirus; Population, economy and pollution: Future Roadmap

The global mushrooming pandemic, that is, coronavirus disease or COVID-19 as we know it, is now active for the last six months, affecting nearly 6.4 million people so far. It has thus, created a multifaceted impact as a spillover effect that includes hunger crisis, poverty, global recession and disequilibrium in the supply chain. This is heart wrenching that the virus is still claiming the lives of people and creating global chaos by generating a fragile economy and development in several countries. The collective impacts have created more or less similar conditions ubiquitously.

India is an overpopulated country with a continuously growing economy and these COVID-19 conditions have worsened the situation to some extent. We are striving to keep our pace up and fight this issue. But situations are much complicated on the larger picture. While medical professionals are busy in attending and treating the affected, scientists working on developing medicines, countries on a global level are trying to maintain social distancing by introducing lockdowns. As is evident that lockdown was the only available feasible option to maintain social distancing, it had certain other outcomes resulting in shutting down of industries and economic sectors, leading to the economic crisis.

In India, many efforts are being taken by the government to ensure technological progress via various new schemes. Ensuring technological progress is crucial to enhance economic growth in many ways. Technology is the key player having a role in both public and private sector and technology-based solutions are much required in various fields like healthcare, urban reforms, education, climate change, etc making it “problem-solver”. Post the coronavirus pandemic there will be an upsurge in the use of virtual technology, AI and cloud-based technology, e-learning, telemedicine, reducing overheads and costs. Hence, it is evident that technology will be crucial economic up lifter due to its significant contributions to overall business profits, output rate efficiency, increased division of labour, job specialization, etc.to be count a few.

As with nearly every element of the healthcare world, applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning have been reshaped by the COVID-19 pandemic. Whole business models and strategies became outdated and entirely new approaches have replaced them. AI is being deployed right now to help care for patients, aid researchers in the hunt for therapeutics and vaccines – and financially battered healthcare systems can use machine learning insights to help optimize their business models moving forward. Keeping people away from disease hotspots is a priority during the pandemic and this has created a surge in the use of telehealth. To maintain social distancing many countries have applied lockdown as a preventive strategy. In spite of its appalling socioeconomic outcomes, the lockdown has improved global environmental conditions to a greater positive extent. Reduced population load has decreased pollution levels making better air and water quality, giving important lessons to the world for a lifetime. This includes, animals coming out of forests and walking freely on roads, better visibility due to reduced level of air pollutants like SPM of PM 2.5 and PM 10, healing of ozone hole, a sighting of aquatic animals which had left the place lone back, increased migrations of birds and so on to be added. However, we are also noticing the impacts of climate change in the form of super cyclones, locust swarms, etc, that indicate the harm we have caused to the environment by violating the important rules of sustainability.

Starting from the Brundtland Report, 1987 and first Earth Summit, 1992, we are continuously talking about SDGs and trying to implement them. For nearly 30 years, since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, sustainability proponents have sought in various ways to foster a “sustainable consumption transition.” For instance, Chapter Four of Agenda 21 forthrightly observes that “while poverty results in certain kinds of environmental stress, the major cause of the continued deterioration of the global environment is the unsustainable pattern of consumption and production, particularly in industrialized countries, which is a matter of grave concern, aggravating poverty and imbalances” (United Nation, 1992). Prior to COVID-19, the world was highly focused on increasing environmental problems and social issues that many believe arose from controversial economic policies and global trade. Sustainability has been a term and concept used to bring balance and create responsibility for economic activity and development. The current definition came from the 2005 World Summit on Social Development, in which three pillars of sustainability development were identified. The three goals—economic development, social development and environmental protections—have ever since served as the foundation to several standards and certifications in sustainability. The concept is well adopted by all stakeholders in various areas of private and public sectors.

The significance of adding human health as one of the sustainable development goals can be seen through the results of the current COVID-19 pandemic. It is practically impossible for life to go on as usual when the health of society quite dramatically crumbles down due to the human health risk of global magnitude. In the months preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, the land use and forestry sector had already been under immense pressure from the widespread wildfires and deforestation in Australia, the Amazon Rainforest Basin, and the Congo Rainforest Basin throughout 2019 and early 2020. The land sector’s importance for biodiversity and wildlife protection as well as its role as a natural carbon sink mandates that the government must enhance its environmental protection efforts during this time of crisis. Policymakers can opt for large-scale landscape restoration and reforestation efforts to create short-term (and mostly temporal) employment opportunities and longer-term environmental benefits such as watershed protection, better crop yields, and forest products.

The economic damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will undoubtedly cause global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and industry to fall in 2020 by at least 4–11% and possibly also in 2021 by 1% above to 9% below 2019 levels. However, this is nothing to celebrate, as per studies, if low carbon development strategies and policies are not rolled out in the economic stimulus packages responding to the COVID-19 pandemic recovery, emissions could rebound and even overshoot previously projected levels by 2030, despite lower economic growth.

Direct investments in zero-emissions technologies and related infrastructure present a key green stimulus intervention opportunity in the energy and electricity supply. Direct investments, particularly in renewable energy, must not only align with the Paris Agreement, but they will also have the potential to create direct employment and economic multiplier effects in the short-term while fostering technological innovation and structural benefits for economic development. Governments should provide targeted financial support for the continued growth of renewables in 2020 and beyond. This support ranges from extending deadlines for commissioning projects beyond 2020, to continuing and extending an existing policy measure have proven to accelerate cost-effective deployment of renewable capacity. Such support assists to navigate the external shock of the COVID-19 pandemic. The African Union and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has already agreed to work closely to advance renewable energy across the continent to bolster Africa’s response to COVID-19 (IRENA, 2020). The accelerated development of large-scale energy infrastructure projects – for example in the field of smart grids, electric-vehicle charging, and digital connectivity – lay the foundation for a more efficient, resilient and future-proofed energy system (IEA, 2020a). Economic recovery packages can include funding the early decommissioning of ageing fossil fuel plants and oil wells under the condition of direct replacement with renewable-plus battery combinations. Such early decommissioning, in combination with the replacement, could be packaged with concessional debt or debt guarantees. Green stimulus measures can further support accelerated R&D and pilot funding for not-yet fully commercialised zero-emission technologies with significant cost reduction potential. This pandemic has made us realize that we need to be proactive and considerate towards Earth and its resources in order to survive as we have seen already that “Earth can heal itself WE ARE THE ONES TO ADJUST!”.

– Dr Kumar Gautam (Founder and CEO)