COVID-19 has not only caused a temporary drop in global CO2 emissions, it has also reduced the share of power generated by burning coal—a trend that could, in fact, outlast the pandemic. This is the key result of a new study by a team of economists based in Potsdam and Berlin that looked at COVID-19's impact on the energy system and demand for electricity. Their findings show that the pandemic, while putting a terrible toll on people's lives and the economy, has also opened a window of opportunity to make this current trend of decreasing coal use irreversible: Supported by the right climate policy measures, power sector emissions could decline more rapidly than previously thought.
source https://phys.org/news/2021-02-coal-covid-pandemic-fossil-power.html
