Health concerns around public transport could cause CO2 emissions to be higher than ever after the shutdown is over
BBCs Environmental correspondent Matt McGraph highlights in his article, "Climate change: Scientists fear car surge will see CO2 rebound." the growing concern that when people return to work, there will be more people driving than ever due to public transport health and safety concerns. At the shutdown peak, CO2 emissions fell by 17% due to government regulations, and many people were celebrating. Pictures went viral of wild animals entering back into cities, dirty rivers becoming apparent, and air polluted cities finally being able to breathe. While this is all excellent news, this doesn't stop it from reverting back to normal when the crisis is over. Combine this with people not wanting to risk public transport, and it can turn into something potentially worst than initially.
In the U.K., the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps pledged 250 million pounds for improvements to cycling and walking infrastructure. Hopefully, this will lighten the load of people driving, but I believe more will have to come. Due to England being quite a compact country when compared to the U.S., projects can be done that affects much more for much less. My home town, Redmond, WA, is much more spread out than your typical U.K. town/city, so doing a project that affects the same amount of people as it would in the U.K. would be more expensive and affect much fewer people. This is why governments need to work on taxing businesses for their carbon emissions. If companies had to pay for the pollutants they put into the environment, they would probably be much more cautious about how they do it! It also spurs innovation and investment into sustainable energy, which benefits everyone.
If carbon emissions laws existed, then the whole CO2 emissions problem would be much easier to solve due to the financial incentives. I believe this is crucial to solving the CO2 problem and one of the only solutions that aren't just a bandaid on the situation.