Sustainability under the threat: The nexus of economic growth, energy consumption, and CO2 emission during COVID-19 pandemic (case study: United Kingdom)

Sustainable development involves maintaining a high pace of economic growth while decreasing overall emissions. Developed nations have emerged as the leading advocates in this matter. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed these efforts. Policymakers were forced to start solid restrictions during 2020 and 2021 to control the virus outbreak. These restrictions affected many sections of GDP and energy demand contributors. This research aims to analyze the relationship between the expansion of the UK economy, energy usage, and the emissions of CO2 (3E) from 2000 to 2022, with a specific emphasis on the consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak. This paper focuses on the annual perspective to find the relation between the considered factors. It also analyzes the pandemic period, from 2020 to mid-late 2021, with a monthly perspective to investigate the nexus of 3E. The results illustrate a negative correlation between GDP and the other two factors since 2000. It also demonstrates that while the GDP increased during this period, energy consumption and CO2 emissions decreased. furthermore, energy consumption and emissions increase rate showed a positive correlation. The main finding of this paper is that during the first phase of the national lockdown, all considered factors decreased significantly. However, there was a relative decoupling during the second national lockdown, meaning that monthly GDP, energy consumption, and emissions recovered slightly. In the third national lockdown, policymakers managed to move toward absolute decoupling. In this phase, CO2 emissions and energy consumption decreased considerably while monthly GDP increased significantly.