According to Stanford News, the pandemic has affected people's attitudes and behaviors related to emissions-producing activities. Telecommuting may be the new normal. Cities from Milan to Seattle have closed miles of streets to traffic permanently and are opening them to pedestrians and bicyclists.
Scientists say that the expected cut in emissions due to COVID-19 is still less than what is needed every year this decade to avoid disastrous climate impacts for much of the world. It is projected that if emissions do in fact drop by 5% in 2020, this same amount of reduction is needed every year until 2050 for net-zero emissions to be reached.
Gina McCarthy, former head of the US Environmental Protection Agency, in an article published by The Guardian, succinctly summed up the current situation when she stated that "The pandemic has shown people will change behavior if it's for the health of their families. This has been a lost message on climate, that it's a human problem, not a planetary problem. We have to show you can have a stable environment and your job, too."