The findings serve as a stark contrast against findings from the Nasa Earth Observatory that showed that the freeze in industrial processes and human activity arising from the pandemic resulted in lower air pollution.
In Singapore, researchers from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) found emissions were modelled to have more than doubled (123 per cent), during the pandemic period, while they increased twofold in Los Angeles (100 per cent), almost two-thirds (65 per cent) in Long Beach, California, and over a quarter (27 per cent) in Hamburg, Germany.
“Our study presents a review of the ship emission outlook amid the pandemic uncertainty,” said Professor Law Wing Keung from NTU’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “Lockdown measures and other Covid-19 restrictions on human activity have upended the landscape for the shipping sector and significantly affected the operating patterns of maritime and trade, leading to the computed outcome revealing...