Since January 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has dominated the media and exercises pressure on governments worldwide. Apart from its effects on economies, education systems and societies, the pandemic has also influenced climate change research. This paper examines the extent to which COVID-19 has influenced climate change research worldwide during the first wave at the beginning of 2020 and how it is perceived to exploit it in the future. This study utilised an international survey involving those dedicated to climate change science and management research from Academia, Government, NGOs, and international agencies in 83 countries. The analysis of responses encompasses four independent variables: Institutions, Regions, Scientific Areas, and the level of economic development represented by the Human Development Index (HDI). Results show that: (1) COVID-19 modified the way the surveyed researchers work, (2) there are indicators that COVID-19 has already influenced the direction of climate change and adaptation policy implementation, and (3) respondents perceived (explicitly concerning the COVID-19 lockdowns of March-April 2020), that the pandemic has drawn attention away from climate policy. COVID- 19 has influenced the agenda of climate change research for more than half of the respondents and is likely to continue in the future, suggesting that the impacts on their research will still be felt for many years. The paper concludes by outlining critical implications for policy-making.

自 2020 年 1 月以来，COVID-19 大流行占据了媒体的主导地位，并给世界各国政府带来了压力。除了对经济、教育系统和社会的影响外，这一流行病还影响了气候变化研究。本文探讨了 COVID-19 在 2020 年初第一波浪潮中对全球气候变化研究的影响程度，以及人们如何看待未来如何利用它。这项研究利用了一项国际调查，涉及 83 个国家的学术界、政府、非政府组织和国际机构致力于气候变化科学和管理研究的人员。对答复的分析包括四个自变量：机构、地区、科学领域以及人类发展指数（HDI）代表的经济发展水平。结果表明：(1) COVID-19 改变了受访研究人员的工作方式，(2) 有迹象表明，COVID-19 已经影响了气候变化和适应政策实施的方向，(3) 受访者认为（明确关注） 2020 年 3 月至 4 月的 COVID-19 封锁），该流行病转移了人们对气候政策的注意力。 COVID-19 已经影响了超过一半受访者的气候变化研究议程，并且未来可能会持续下去，这表明他们的研究受到的影响将持续很多年。本文最后概述了对政策制定的关键影响。