The Impact of COVID-19 on CO2 Emissions in the Los Angeles and Washington DC/Baltimore Metropolitan Areas

Vineet Yadav; Subhomoy Ghosh; Kimberly Mueller; Anna Karion; Geoffrey Roest; Sharon M. Gourdji; Israel Lopez-Coto; Kevin R. Gurney; Nicholas Parazoo; Kristal R. Verhulst; Jooil Kim; Steve Prinzivalli; Clayton Fain; Thomas Nehrkorn; Marikate Mountain; Ralph F. Keeling; Ray F. Weiss; Riley Duren; Charles E. Miller; James Whetstone

doi:10.1029/2021GL092744

The Impact of COVID-19 on CO₂ Emissions in the Los Angeles and Washington DC/Baltimore Metropolitan Areas

Vineet Yadav, Subhomoy Ghosh, Kimberly Mueller, Anna Karion, Geoffrey Roest, Sharon M. Gourdji, Israel Lopez-Coto, Kevin R. Gurney, Nicholas Parazoo, Kristal R. Verhulst, Jooil Kim, Steve Prinzivalli, Clayton Fain, Thomas Nehrkorn, Marikate Mountain, Ralph F. Keeling, Ray F. Weiss, Riley Duren, Charles E. Miller, James Whetstone

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

36 Scopus citations

Abstract

Responses to COVID-19 have resulted in unintended reductions of city-scale carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. Here, we detect and estimate decreases in CO₂ emissions in Los Angeles and Washington DC/Baltimore during March and April 2020. We present three lines of evidence using methods that have increasing model dependency, including an inverse model to estimate relative emissions changes in 2020 compared to 2018 and 2019. The March decrease (25%) in Washington DC/Baltimore is largely supported by a drop in natural gas consumption associated with a warm spring whereas the decrease in April (33%) correlates with changes in gasoline fuel sales. In contrast, only a fraction of the March (17%) and April (34%) reduction in Los Angeles is explained by traffic declines. Methods and measurements used herein highlight the advantages of atmospheric CO₂ observations for providing timely insights into rapidly changing emissions patterns that can empower cities to course-correct CO₂ reduction activities efficiently.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	e2021GL092744
Journal	Geophysical Research Letters
Volume	48
Issue number	11
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL092744
State	Published - Jun 16 2021
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

COVID-19
Los Angeles
Washington DC
carbon dioxide
inversion
urban

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Geophysics
General Earth and Planetary Sciences

Access to Document

10.1029/2021GL092744

Cite this

Yadav, V., Ghosh, S., Mueller, K., Karion, A., Roest, G., Gourdji, S. M., Lopez-Coto, I., Gurney, K. R., Parazoo, N., Verhulst, K. R., Kim, J., Prinzivalli, S., Fain, C., Nehrkorn, T., Mountain, M., Keeling, R. F., Weiss, R. F., Duren, R., Miller, C. E., & Whetstone, J. (2021). The Impact of COVID-19 on CO₂ Emissions in the Los Angeles and Washington DC/Baltimore Metropolitan Areas. Geophysical Research Letters, 48(11), Article e2021GL092744. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL092744

Yadav, V, Ghosh, S, Mueller, K, Karion, A, Roest, G, Gourdji, SM, Lopez-Coto, I, Gurney, KR, Parazoo, N, Verhulst, KR, Kim, J, Prinzivalli, S, Fain, C, Nehrkorn, T, Mountain, M, Keeling, RF, Weiss, RF, Duren, R, Miller, CE & Whetstone, J 2021, 'The Impact of COVID-19 on CO₂ Emissions in the Los Angeles and Washington DC/Baltimore Metropolitan Areas', Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 48, no. 11, e2021GL092744. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL092744

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