Impact of Lockdowns and Winter Temperatures on Natural Gas Consumption in Europe

As the COVID-19 virus spread over world, governments restricted mobility to slow transmission. Public health measures had different intensities across European countries but all significant impact on people's daily lives and economic activities, causing a drop of CO2 emissions about 10% for whole year 2020. Here, we analyze changes in natural gas use industry distribution built environment during first half 2020 with flows data from pipeline storage facilities Europe. We find that reductions industrial reflect decreases production most countries. Surprisingly, also decreased despite people being confined at home cold spells March Those attribute impacts remain comparable magnitude previous variations induced by or warm climate anomalies season. conclude played larger role than stay-home orders consumption