Silver linings around the COVID-19 Pandemic

March 20th, 2020

Hope you are doing well and staying safe. Welcome back to our brief thoughts on ESG. This week I’d like to share three small silver linings from the COVID-19 pandemic hoping this provides some (albeit little) light for all.

• Global reduction in carbon emissions since the outbreak.
• “Measures taken by China to contain the coronavirus resulted in reductions of 15 to 40% in output across key industrial sectors.” Carbon Brief website
• Nitrogen dioxide over China decreased materially over these weeks as evidenced by NASA’s imagery.
• Global air traffic decreased by 4.3% in February (before travel bans). In 2016, a UN deal signed by 192 countries stated that net carbon emissions from international flights would stay at 2020 levels. Any growth would have to be offset somehow. If 2020 is a year with particularly low carbon emissions from airlines, this may have a real impact in the future.
• Cleaner water (even in Venice!) I’m sure most of you have seen the pictures of Venice’s canals where water looks clear.
• Communities coming together. Neighbors shopping for vulnerable groups who can’t leave home, companies changing their manufacturing processes to help with some important shortages (like perfume factories producing antibacterial gel), people singing together from their balconies, people thanking health workers with different public ovations form their homes, and many other instances where we are all reminded that we are all humans in the end.

Naturally the loss of lives and economic impact of this pandemic is beyond words. We don’t think there is anything that could truly compensate for that, but we do think that it is impressive that nature can be restored so quickly. And perhaps that is a big lesson we all need to learn and think thoroughly.

What is sad that it took a pandemic of such destructive proportions to have this impact.

Once the pandemic is over, we would expect some soul searching around the world, with companies and governments putting health and sustainability at the center of their goals and objectives. As we have seen, what happens in one community can affect the world in a matter of weeks or months, which makes global coordination of such matters paramount. So, while most companies in Mexico are rightly focused now on corporate survival, in the long term we would expect ESG to remain a corporate and governmental focus, more and not less so after the Coronavirus epidemic.

Hope this was of use. As usual, if there is anything we can help you with, please reach out. Also, don’t forget to recommend any ESG subject matter that you would like us to research and put in a forthcoming weekly

Regards,

Marimar

Partner, Miranda ESG