Spillover effects of the United States economic slowdown induced by COVID-19 pandemic on energy, economy, and environment in other countries

Environ Res. 2021 May:196:110936. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.110936. Epub 2021 Feb 26.

Abstract

The United States has become the country hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. This pandemic has not only led to the largest decline in economic output but also caused a sharp decline in carbon emissions and energy consumption in the United States after World War II. This study aims to evaluate how to spillover effects of the US economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on the 3E (Energy Economy Environment) in other countries. To this end, the international 3E for 2000 and 2014, and nine indicators based on network analysis to dynamically study the changes in the degree of 3E impact between countries. And then, we analyzed the impact of the epidemic on the 3E of various countries, with focusing on the interaction between the United States and other countries. The results show that the internal carbon emission density and internal energy consumption density of the United States declined during 2010-2014, whereas the internal carbon emission density and internal energy consumption density of developing countries increased. Next, changes in US carbon emissions induced by the epidemic have a more significant impact on Canada, China, Mexico, the European Union, and Russia. Finally, the internal and external carbon emission indexes of most countries have decreased, which indicates that most countries are affected by the carbon reduction and energy consumption caused by the pandemic in the US. This information provides a new perspective for assessing the impact of 3E between countries suffered from the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; Carbon emission; Input-output analysis; Network analysis.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • COVID-19*
  • Canada
  • China
  • Humans
  • Mexico / epidemiology
  • Pandemics*
  • Russia
  • SARS-CoV-2
  • United States / epidemiology