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Reductions in California's Urban Fossil Fuel CO(2) Emissions During the COVID‐19 Pandemic

Fossil fuel carbon dioxide (CO(2)) emissions (ffCO(2)) constitute the majority of greenhouse gas emissions and are the main determinant of global climate change. The COVID‐19 pandemic caused wide‐scale disruption to human activity and provided an opportunity to evaluate our capability to detect ffCO...

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Autores principales: Yañez, C. C., Hopkins, F. M., Xu, X., Tavares, J. F., Welch, A., Czimczik, C. I.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9878140/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2022AV000732
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author Yañez, C. C.
Hopkins, F. M.
Xu, X.
Tavares, J. F.
Welch, A.
Czimczik, C. I.
author_facet Yañez, C. C.
Hopkins, F. M.
Xu, X.
Tavares, J. F.
Welch, A.
Czimczik, C. I.
author_sort Yañez, C. C.
collection PubMed
description Fossil fuel carbon dioxide (CO(2)) emissions (ffCO(2)) constitute the majority of greenhouse gas emissions and are the main determinant of global climate change. The COVID‐19 pandemic caused wide‐scale disruption to human activity and provided an opportunity to evaluate our capability to detect ffCO(2) emission reductions. Quantifying changes in ffCO(2) levels is especially challenging in cities, where climate mitigation policies are being implemented but local emissions lead to spatially and temporally complex atmospheric mixing ratios. Here, we assess ffCO(2) emission patterns associated with pandemic‐induced changes to human activity using direct observations of on‐road CO(2) mole fractions in the Los Angeles (LA) urban area and analyses of the radiocarbon ((14)C) content of annual grasses collected by community scientists throughout California, USA. With COVID‐19 mobility restrictions in place in 2020, we observed a significant reduction in ffCO(2) levels across California, especially in urban centers. In LA, on‐road CO(2) enhancements were 60 ± 16% lower than the corresponding period of 2019 and rebounded to pre‐pandemic levels by 2021. Plant (14)C analysis indicated ffCO(2) reductions of 5 ± 10 ppm in 2020 relative to pre‐pandemic observations in LA. However, ffCO(2) emission trajectories varied substantially by region and sector as COVID‐related restrictions were relaxed. Further development of these techniques could aid efforts to monitor decarbonization in cities, especially in developing countries without established CO(2) monitoring infrastructure.
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spelling pubmed-98781402023-01-26 Reductions in California's Urban Fossil Fuel CO(2) Emissions During the COVID‐19 Pandemic Yañez, C. C. Hopkins, F. M. Xu, X. Tavares, J. F. Welch, A. Czimczik, C. I. AGU Advances Research Article Fossil fuel carbon dioxide (CO(2)) emissions (ffCO(2)) constitute the majority of greenhouse gas emissions and are the main determinant of global climate change. The COVID‐19 pandemic caused wide‐scale disruption to human activity and provided an opportunity to evaluate our capability to detect ffCO(2) emission reductions. Quantifying changes in ffCO(2) levels is especially challenging in cities, where climate mitigation policies are being implemented but local emissions lead to spatially and temporally complex atmospheric mixing ratios. Here, we assess ffCO(2) emission patterns associated with pandemic‐induced changes to human activity using direct observations of on‐road CO(2) mole fractions in the Los Angeles (LA) urban area and analyses of the radiocarbon ((14)C) content of annual grasses collected by community scientists throughout California, USA. With COVID‐19 mobility restrictions in place in 2020, we observed a significant reduction in ffCO(2) levels across California, especially in urban centers. In LA, on‐road CO(2) enhancements were 60 ± 16% lower than the corresponding period of 2019 and rebounded to pre‐pandemic levels by 2021. Plant (14)C analysis indicated ffCO(2) reductions of 5 ± 10 ppm in 2020 relative to pre‐pandemic observations in LA. However, ffCO(2) emission trajectories varied substantially by region and sector as COVID‐related restrictions were relaxed. Further development of these techniques could aid efforts to monitor decarbonization in cities, especially in developing countries without established CO(2) monitoring infrastructure. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022-12-01 2022-12 /pmc/articles/PMC9878140/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2022AV000732 Text en © 2022. The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
spellingShingle Research Article
Yañez, C. C.
Hopkins, F. M.
Xu, X.
Tavares, J. F.
Welch, A.
Czimczik, C. I.
Reductions in California's Urban Fossil Fuel CO(2) Emissions During the COVID‐19 Pandemic
title Reductions in California's Urban Fossil Fuel CO(2) Emissions During the COVID‐19 Pandemic
title_full Reductions in California's Urban Fossil Fuel CO(2) Emissions During the COVID‐19 Pandemic
title_fullStr Reductions in California's Urban Fossil Fuel CO(2) Emissions During the COVID‐19 Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Reductions in California's Urban Fossil Fuel CO(2) Emissions During the COVID‐19 Pandemic
title_short Reductions in California's Urban Fossil Fuel CO(2) Emissions During the COVID‐19 Pandemic
title_sort reductions in california's urban fossil fuel co(2) emissions during the covid‐19 pandemic
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9878140/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2022AV000732
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