2021 / COVID

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Global Environmental Change: Emerging Research Needs

Citation

Barouki, R., Kogevinas, M., Audouze, K., Belesova, K., Bergman, A., Birnbaum, L., … Frumkin, H., … & HERA-COVID-19 working group. (2021). The COVID-19 pandemic and global environmental change: Emerging research needs. Environment International, 146, 106272. doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2020.106272

Link to file

The COVID-19 pandemic raised urgent questions about how new infections, the environment, climate, and human health all interact. In response, the European Union asked the HERA project, a research initiative focused on environment, climate, and health, to identify the most important research needs related to the virus.

What drove the emergence and spread of the virus?
Evidence suggests that the emergence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 is linked to several human activities: urbanization, destruction of natural habitats, the live animal trade, intensive livestock farming, and global travel. The role of climate and air pollution is less clear and needs more study.

Why did some people get sicker than others?
The severity of COVID-19 depended on the interaction between the viral infection, aging, and chronic diseases like metabolic disorders, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and obesity. Importantly, all of those conditions are themselves influenced by environmental stressors. Exactly how these factors work together deserves a much closer look.

What are some long-term changes from the pandemic?
Both the pandemic itself and society’s response to it triggered major behavioral and social changes. Some of those changes may stick around long after the pandemic ends, and they could have lasting effects on health, including mental health.

What comes next?
Recovery plans are now being discussed or put into action around the world. But the environmental and health impacts of those plans are still unclear. What is clear is that COVID-19 will leave a lasting mark on the field of environmental health. It has opened up new research questions and new policy needs that will shape the field for years to come.

Abstract

Figure 1. COVID-19 and Environment, Climate and Health. The figure shows the different stages of the pandemic development and, at each stage, the environmental factors that either contribute to or are impacted by that particular stage. The HERA consortium has made proposals for multidisciplinary research to achieve transformational change supporting and merging different agendas such as zero pollution, climate change resilience and mitigation, farm to fork, circular economy, EU chemical strategy for sustainability. These proposals can be found online.

The outbreak of COVID-19 raised numerous questions on the interactions between the occurrence of new infections, the environment, climate and health. The European Union requested the H2020 HERA project which aims at setting priorities in research on environment, climate and health, to identify relevant research needs regarding Covid-19. The emergence and spread of SARS-CoV-2 appears to be related to urbanization, habitat destruction, live animal trade, intensive livestock farming and global travel. The contribution of climate and air pollution requires additional studies. Importantly, the severity of COVID-19 depends on the interactions between the viral infection, ageing and chronic diseases such as metabolic, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and obesity which are themselves influenced by environmental stressors. The mechanisms of these interactions deserve additional scrutiny. Both the pandemic and the social response to the disease have elicited an array of behavioural and societal changes that may remain long after the pandemic and that may have long term health effects including on mental health. Recovery plans are currently being discussed or implemented and the environmental and health impacts of those plans are not clearly foreseen. Clearly, COVID-19 will have a long-lasting impact on the environmental health field and will open new research perspectives and policy needs.