Climate scientist here, not much.
It is true that during economic downturn carbon emissions goes down, but there is well documented effect that during the "recovery" countries will bounce harder than before. We see in the asian financial crisis of 98 and 08 great recession that countries will fall back to the cheapest, easiest to use idiotproof 19th century technology energy there is, the one that started the industrial revolution = coal.
Remember when Obama was shilling for "clean coal" in 09 right after they took office?
>https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/obama-and-clean-coal/Pepperidge farm remembers.
It was nothing but a sham to jumpstart economic growth, there was no such thing as "clean coal." Libs now made fun of Trump saying clean coal.
We will forego progress on renewables just to "catch back." It happened in '98 when China, and Japan built a lot of coal power plants, it happened to the US and Europe in 08, and it'll happen again for sure post-coronavirus. China is already doing this post-coronavirus bounce
>https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bvg39q/chinas-air-quality-is-about-to-get-a-whole-lot-worse-because-of-coronavirusAuthorities are suspending enforcement of environmental rules while factories make up for lost production during the coronavirus pandemic.
There ain't no silver lining in this kids. If anything the economic downturn will setback the transition to renewables even further as countries fall back to cheap dirty energy like coal.
