Perspectives on the Economics of the Environment in the Shadow of Coronavirus

On February 25, 2020, the Brazilian Ministry of Health confirmed that a 61-year-old man was positive for SARS-CoV-2: COVID-19 had arrived to Latin America. As of 3 July 2020, there have been 2.7 million confirmed cases in Latin America, compared to 1.3 million in the European Union and 2.8 million in the USA (JH-CSSE 2020). Furthermore, so far there have been more than 120,000 deaths in the region and the trends show that the first wave of the pandemic is far from over (ibid.). There is of course no suitable time for a pandemic to arrive, but these are especially complicated times for Latin America. The region is in the midst of a difficult economic situation accompanied by rising social discontent (ECLAC 2020; OECD 2020). Moreover, it is characterized by high rates of informality, health systems with limited and unequal capacity, and most of the countries have high levels of debt (OECD 2020). Under these circumstances, COVID-19 is having major short-run socio-economic effects with possible serious long-run consequences, including several potential implications for the environment and the management of natural resources.