At the risk of dragging this OT historically recessions however caused have reduced emissions and they then strongly rebound during the recovery phase. Unless there are large societal changes that result from the pandemic it's likely exactly the same thing will happen here, meaning emissions had a temporary blip before continuing as before or worse as the economic stimuli lead to an increase from the pre-pandemic position.
I work in IT, an industry where people normally travel for meetings, often overseas, just because of a perceived importance for face to face interactions. The pandemic has forced people to find an alternative in Zoom/Teams etc. and the realisation has dawned that business travel is, in the main, a waste of money and time and drags people away from their families. The same is even true of daily commuting. One of my roles is running training courses, which I wouldn't have even entertained the idea of attempting to do remotely, but now I've actually got a remote setup which is just as good if not better.
For this reason, I'm convinced that when the Pandemic is eventually over, although holiday travel will return to normal, business travel will never be the same again - which must account for a significant proportion of flights. Working from home will permanently replace commuting for very many people.
So not only is this good news for the environment, but I also can't see Heathrow ever needing to build a third runway. I think we've passed "peak air-travel".
Darren
Crowthorne, Berks (87m asl)
South Berks Winter Snow Depth Totals:
2022/23 7 cm; 2021/22 1 cm; 2020/21 13 cm; 2019/20 0 cm; 2018/19 14 cm; 2017/18 23 cm; 2016/17 0 cm; 2015/16 0.5 cm; 2014/15 3.5 cm; 2013/14 0 cm; 2012/13 22 cm; 2011/12 7 cm; 2010/11 6 cm; 2009/10 51 cm