Mingyue Zhao

Lockdown measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) resulted in the plummeting of China’s overall electric-power demand and production. To date, power generation remains one of the largest carbon dioxide (CO₂) emitting sectors of China on account of its high carbon intensity. Within this context, our study seeks to measure the impacts of COVID-19 lockdown on the electricity-power related carbon footprints on both generation and consumption sides. Built on statistical data of electricity generation and consumption released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBSC), we calculate he nationwide electricity related CO₂ emission changes in regional, economic-sectoral and technological dimensions during January–April 2020, when the strictest lock-down measures were taken in China and compare the results with the same months of the year prior. Our results show that both east and central China power grids witnessed drastic reduction (15.0% and 13.8%) in electricity-generation caused CO₂ emissions; and the biggest falls of provincial-scale electricity-generation CO₂ emission took place in Hubei (27.3%). Among China’s electricity production mix, coal remains the biggest CO₂ emitter and contributed 95.7% of the overall nationwide reduction. The most significant decline of the nationwide consumptive-electricity carbon footprint was by 10.1% in February, with the secondary economic sector the biggest contributor.