Hideyuki Doi, Takeshi Osawa, Narumasa Tsutsumida

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has led to a lockdown worldwide. This restriction on human movements and activities significantly influences society and the environment. We examined the consequences of global lockdown for human movement and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions using an air pollution index and dataset and satellite image analyses. We also evaluated the immediate (during lockdown) and persistent (after lockdown) effects of lockdown on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We observed a drastic decrease in human movement and NO2 emissions and determined that many SDGs are influenced both immediately and persistently due to the global lockdown. We observed immediate negative impacts on four goals and positive impacts on five goals, especially those concerning economy issues and ecosystem conservation, respectively. The persistent effects of lockdown were predominately reversed from the immediate impacts due to economic recovery predictions. The global lockdown influences our ability to meet the SDGs, and our analysis provides powerful insights into the internationally agreed-upon SDGs both during and after the COVID-19-induced global lockdown.