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Cascading impacts of global metal mining on climate change and human health caused by COVID-19 pandemic

2022; Elsevier BV; Volume: 190; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106800

1879-0658

Yao Wang, Heming Wang, Peng Wang, Xu Zhang, Zhihe Zhang, Qiumeng Zhong, Fengmei Ma, Qiang Yue, Wei‐Qiang Chen, Tao Du, Sai Liang,

Mining and Resource Management

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has significantly disrupted global metal mining and associated supply chains. Here we analyse the cascading effects of the metal mining disruption associated with the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy, climate change, and human health. We find that the pandemic reduced global metal mining by 10-20% in 2020. This reduction subsequently led to losses in global economic output of approximately 117 billion US dollars, reduced CO2 emissions by approximately 33 million tonnes (exceeding Hungary's emissions in 2015), and reduced human health damage by 78,192 disability-adjusted life years. In particular, copper and iron mining made the most significant contribution to these effects. China and rest-of-the-world America were the most affected. The cascading effects of the metal mining disruption associated with the pandemic on the economy, climate change, and human health should be simultaneously considered in designing green economic stimulus policies.