CollectionEnvironmentalists were especially euphoric at the early stages of the lockdowns.Cazcarro and co-authors estimate the impact of the COVID-19 crisis for Europe and its trade-related spillovers to the rest of the world and find significant decreases in major environmental pollutants.There is preliminary evidence that this helped both to reduce the effect of the COVID-19 virus, and lower long-term pollution levels may also help individuals to cope with the virus (Peña-Lévano and Escalante).The resulting clear skies, improvements in local water quality, reductions in noise and air pollution as well as substantial numbers of employees working in home offices have raised the hope that mankind is ushering into a new era of a transformed society with reduced pollution and lowered environmental impacts.These hopes were, however, short-lived (McCloskey and Heymann 2020).Not only have, so far at least, all countries that have (mostly) overcome the first wave returned to business as usual, but companies have also used the opportunity to lobby for relaxed emission standards, to increase subsidies or receive financial aid and, therefore, been able to quickly return to the pre-COVID-19 status quo.Side effects are that, already in the short run, many initial improvements in environmental quality succumbed to a relaxation of environmental regulations and a catching-up process that brings countries back to their original economic growth levels.There are early signs that this rebound effect is due to reductions in public transport, increased use of ICT and expected changes in land use leading to levels of pollution that may even rise above pre-COVID-19 levels (Freire-González and Vivanco).Cojoianu and coauthors show that the rebound effect may have been partly financed by the bonds bought through the European Central Bank's Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP) in response to COVID-19, as they provide empirical evidence that these bonds are more likely to be issued by carbon-intensive companies, or those that lobby more for carbon-intensive sectors.Lopez-Feldman and co-authors discuss the environmental impacts from the COVID-19 crisis with a focus on Latin America, especially deforestation and air pollution, and show that a rebound effect is already happening and will potentially worsen.In addition, Xepapadeas shows that COVID-19 had not only a shortrun negative impact on comprehensive wealth but may also lead to a long-run worsening of sustainability.Shehabi argues that for oil exporting countries, the current crisis increases the opportunity cost of moving to greener alternatives and that, for some regions, stimuli packages may reallocate funds away from green investments.In contrast to the results presented above, there is a larger movement that argues that this crisis also bears unexpected opportunities.As has often been argued, structural breaks, in this case in the form of COVID-19, are game-changing opportunities that allow policies to be focused on long-term commitments to achieve desired climate targets.The newer recent social momentums, like Friday for Futures, or the policy-pushed New Green Deals, or the focus that the IPCC has laid on 1.5 °C warming, have placed environmental issues at the forefront of many discussions and potential policy changes.The calls for green stimuli, i.e.COVID-19 rescue packages that focus on a green transition, have been astonishing.It is precisely these green stimuli that may turn out to be long-term game changer that environmentalists