Swedish activist Greta Thunberg has joined calls for a combined effort to tackle coronavirus and the climate crisis, saying the 50th anniversary of Earth Day on Wednesday was the time to choose a "new way forward".
Dramatic improvements in air and water quality as coronavirus lockdowns have cut pollution have prompted calls for a low-carbon future, but the need to get millions back to work is clouding the picture for the future.
Ms Thunberg, taking part in a digitally streamed event to mark Earth Day, said the extraordinary measures to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus did not mean the climate crisis had gone away.
"We need to tackle two crises at once," she said.
"Whether we like it or not the world has changed, it looks completely different from how it did a few months ago and it will probably not look the same again and we are going to have to choose a new way forward."
With economies round the world shut down, some wildlife has returned to city streets, with wolves, deer and kangaroos spotted on thoroughfares usually teeming with traffic.
Fish have been seen in Venice canals no longer polluted by motor boats, while residents of some Indian cities have reported seeing the Himalayas for the first time in decades.
Teenage actvist Greta Thunberg spoke about the coronavirus and the environment in an online event to mark Earth Day. Source: TT News Agency
Satellite imagery has shown significant air quality improvements across Europe and Asia, including China, where the coronavirus pandemic emerged at the end of last year.
Residents in some of China's most smog-prone cities said they feared blue skies would not last as the world's second biggest economy got back to work, however.
UN chief Antonio Guterres echoed Thunberg, urging governments to use their economic responses to the pandemic to tackle the "even deeper emergency" of climate change.
With battle lines emerging between investors backing "green stimulus" measures and industry lobbyists aiming to weaken climate regulations, Mr Guterres cautioned governments against bailing out heavily polluting industries.
"On this Earth Day, all eyes are on the COVID-19 pandemic," Mr Guterres said. "But there is another, even deeper emergency, the planet's unfolding environmental crisis."
Carbon dioxide levels at one key global observing station are about 26 per cent higher than in 1970, while the average global temperature has increased by 0.86 degrees Celsius in that time, the UN's World Meteorological Organization said.
Temperatures are also 1.1 Celsius warmer than the pre-industrial era, it added.
But the coronavirus pandemic is expected to drive carbon dioxide emissions down six per cent this year, the head of the WMO said, in what would be the biggest yearly drop since World War II.
But that's not enough to stop climate change, the WMO said.
"COVID-19 may result in a temporary reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, but it is not a substitute for sustained climate action."
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