Energy and GHG Emissions Aspects of the COVID Impact in Greece

Dimitri Lalas, Nikolaos Gakis, Sebastian Mirasgedis, Elena Georgopoulou, Yannis Sarafidis and Haris Doukas
Additional contact information
Dimitri Lalas: FACE 3 TS S.A., 1 Agiou Isidorou Str., 11471 Athens, Greece
Nikolaos Gakis: FACE 3 TS S.A., 1 Agiou Isidorou Str., 11471 Athens, Greece
Sebastian Mirasgedis: National Observatory of Athens, Lofos Nymfon, Thesseon, 11810 Athens, Greece
Elena Georgopoulou: National Observatory of Athens, Lofos Nymfon, Thesseon, 11810 Athens, Greece
Yannis Sarafidis: National Observatory of Athens, Lofos Nymfon, Thesseon, 11810 Athens, Greece
Haris Doukas: Decision Support Systems Laboratory, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Iroon Politechniou 9, 15780 Athens, Greece

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-22

Abstract: The effects of COVID-19 have had devasting effects on both health and economies in 2020. At the same time, the lockdown and the downturn of economic activity resulted in a decrease in energy consumption and an accompanying reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. In this article, a comparison with the temperature adjustment of energy use is presented for the main carriers of electricity, natural gas, and oil products in the residential, tertiary, industry, and transport (road transport, domestic aviation, and navigation) sectors in 2020 against the previous two years in Greece, along with the corresponding emissions. As the comparison covers the entire year, both COVID peaks in the March–April and November–December periods and the corresponding lockdown effects as well as seasonal variations are included. The analysis shows a reduction, adjusted for temperature, of 3528 GWh in electricity and 10,286 GWh in transport, and an increase of 1916 GWh in heating and other final uses for a net 11,898 GWh decrease and a resulting emissions reduction of 3.48 MtCO 2 eq (1.29 MtCO 2 eq in electricity, 2.69 MtCO 2 eq in transport, and an increase of 0.54 MtCO 2 eq in heating), or 4.1%, from total national emissions in 2019. The effect is, to a considerable extent, the result of drastic tourist activity contraction, which is starkly evident in the electricity consumption in the Aegean islands. The comparison between the two lockdown periods brings out clear differences, with the reduction in the second one being considerably smaller as the population reverted, to a large extent, to pre-COVID behavior, which implies that no permanent gains from the COVID long-term impact toward decarbonization should be expected.

Keywords: COVID-19; Greece; electricity; greenhouse gas emissions; lockdowns (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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