The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has magnified the insufficient readiness of humans in dealing with such an unexpected occurrence. During the pandemic, sustainable
development goals have been hindered severely. Various observations and lessons have been highlighted to emphasise local impacts on a single region or single sector, whilst the holistic and coupling
impacts are rarely investigated. This study overviews the structural changes and spatial heterogeneities of changes in healthcare, energy and environment, and offers perspectives for the in-depth
understanding of the COVID-19 impacts on the three sectors, in particular the cross-sections of
them. Practical observations are summarised through the broad overview. A novel concept of the
healthcare–energy–environment nexus under climate change constraints is proposed and discussed,
to illustrate the relationships amongst the three sectors and further analyse the dynamics of the
attention to healthcare, energy and environment in view of decision-makers. The society is still on
the way to understanding the impacts of the whole episode of COVID-19 on healthcare, energy, environment and beyond. The raised nexus thinking could contribute to understanding the complicated
COVID-19 impacts and guiding sustainable future planning.
License type:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Funding Info:
Research was supported by A*STAR under its Industry Alignment Fund (Pre-Positioning)
(Award reference number: H19/01/a0/023—Diabetes Clinic of the Future). This work is also partially
supported by the project form the National Research Foundation Singapore: The Study of 4D Dengue
Transmission Risk Based on Big Urban Data (under Grant No. NRF2017VSG-AT3DCM001-045).
The financial support from the EU supported project Sustainable Process Integration Laboratory
(SPIL) — funded as project No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15_003/0000456, by Czech Republic Operational
Programme Research and Development, Education, Priority 1: Strengthening capacity for quality
research is also acknowledged.