But those massive drops, even in a scenario in which the pandemic lasts through 2021, won’t have much of a lasting effect on climate change, unless countries incorporate “green” policy measures in their economic recovery packages, researchers report August 7 in Nature Climate Change. Precipitous drop Using anonymized cell phone mobility data, scientists estimated how average global emissions changed relative to baseline levels for carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, or SO 2 , and nitrogen oxides, or NO x , during the coronavirus pandemic. Fewer greenhouse gases should result in some cooling of the atmosphere, but the researchers found that effect will be largely offset by the roughly 20 percent fall in sulfur dioxide emissions in April.