Environmental conditions and human activity nexus. The case of Northern Italy during COVID-19 lockdown

Abstract

During COVID-19, draconian countermeasures forbidding non-essential human activities have been adopted worldwide, providing an unprecedented setup for testing sustainability policies. We unravel causal relationships among 16 environmental conditions and human activity variables and argue that, despite a measurable decrease in NO2 concentration due to human activities, locking down a region is insufficient to significantly reduce emissions. Policy strategies more effective than lockdowns must be considered for pollution control and climate change mitigation.