The impacts of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic on international environmental protection

Abstract

The COVID-19 Pandemic, first reported in Wuhan-the capital of Hubei Province of China in December 2019, is a human tragedy that is currently affecting millions of people around the globe. Presently, about 215 countrieshave reported cases of COVID-19. As of September 23, 2020, case growth, according to the Worldometer, has accelerated to 31,850,036 cases, with 976,559 deaths and 23,449,907 recoveries. The World Health Organization(WHO), on January 30, 2020, announced COVID-19 as a pandemic and listed it as a public health emergency of global concern. It indicated with certainty that the COVID-19 epidemic would extend to every part of the world and noted that all individuals, businesses, and governments could change the disease's trajectory. On March 24,2020, noting that the COVID-19 Pandemic is progressively spreading and its impacts upon human health and the economy escalating daily, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) urged governments to take urgent actions to minimize possible secondary impacts upon the global environment. However, a cursory survey of the effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the world would show that it has already impacted international environmental protection in multidimensional ways. Thus, this paper focuses on the impacts of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic on international environmental protection.