Social impacts and serious damages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in public introspection on the issue of ecological environmental protection. However, whether the public cognition of COVID-19 can promote pro-environmental behavioral intentions (PEBI) has not yet been determined; this is crucial for studying the ecological significance of the pandemic. Based on the affective events theory (AET), this study investigated the mechanism by which COVID-19 emergency cognition influences public PEBI. Following an analysis of 873 public questionnaires, the results reveal that public cognition of COVID-19 emergency can significantly promote PEBI. Among them, the effect of emergency coping is stronger than that of emergency relevance. Besides, the positive and negative environmental affective reactions aroused by COVID-19 pandemic play a mediating role between the emergency cognition and PEBI. Moreover, the positive environmental affective reactions show a stronger positive effect on household-sphere PEBI. However, the negative environmental affective reactions are more prominent in promoting public-sphere PEBI. This research aims to bridge a research gap by establishing a link between COVID-19 pandemic and PEBI. The findings can provide useful recommendations for policymakers to find the opportunity behind the COVID-19 emergency to promote public PEBI.

COVID-19大流行造成的社会影响和严重破坏，引发了公众对生态环境保护问题的反思。但是，公众对 COVID-19 的认知是否可以促进亲环境行为意向（PEBI）尚未确定；这对于研究大流行的生态意义至关重要。本研究基于情感事件理论 (AET)，调查了 COVID-19 紧急认知影响公共 PEBI 的机制。通过对 873 份公共问卷的分析，结果表明，公众对 COVID-19 紧急情况的认知可以显着促进 PEBI。其中，应急应对的作用强于应急相关性。除了，COVID-19大流行引起的正面和负面环境情感反应在应急认知和PEBI之间起中介作用。此外，积极的环境情感反应对家庭领域的 PEBI 表现出更强的积极影响。然而，负面的环境情感反应在促进公共领域PEBI方面更为突出。这项研究旨在通过在 COVID-19 大流行和 PEBI 之间建立联系来弥合研究差距。这些发现可以为政策制定者提供有用的建议，以找到 COVID-19 紧急情况背后的机会来促进公共 PEBI。负面环境影响反应在促进公共领域PEBI中更为突出。这项研究旨在通过在 COVID-19 大流行和 PEBI 之间建立联系来弥合研究差距。这些发现可以为政策制定者提供有用的建议，以找到 COVID-19 紧急情况背后的机会来促进公共 PEBI。负面环境影响反应在促进公共领域PEBI中更为突出。这项研究旨在通过在 COVID-19 大流行和 PEBI 之间建立联系来弥合研究差距。这些发现可以为政策制定者提供有用的建议，以找到 COVID-19 紧急情况背后的机会来促进公共 PEBI。