Improved air quality was a silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic with lockdowns reducing air pollution around the world. The adjustment was most prominent in highly polluted countries such as India, China, the United States, and Italy.
The drop in demand for electricity resulted in a 25% reduction in emissions in China. The condition potentially saved between 50,000 to 75,000 people from dying prematurely, according to Stanford University researcher Marshall Burke.
Unfortunately, as lockdowns abate, air pollution is rising back to pre-pandemic levels. Europe will likely follow. Naturally, scientists have called for action to do what is necessary to hold onto the air quality benefits of lockdowns. In response, some governments have expanded cycle lanes and pedestrian zones in cities with the hopes that people will choose to refrain from using their cars or public transportation.
As far as China goes, concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particles (PM2.5) across the nation have rebound to the same levels as last year during the same period.
Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) data shows that in Shanghai, the levels are 9% higher, and in Wuhan (the city at the center of the epidemic), NO2 levels are 14% lower. During the peak of coronavirus response (early March), Wuhan’s levels had dropped by almost 50%, and the country’s overall NO2 levels were down by 38%, and PM2.5 concentrations were down by 34%.
Crea’s lead analyst, Lauri Myllyvirta, said:
The rapid rebound in air pollution and coal consumption levels across China is an early warning of what a smokestack industry-led rebound could look like. Highly polluting industries have been faster to recover from the crisis than the rest of the economy. It is essential for policymakers to prioritize clean energy.
Meanwhile, in Europe, all major cities have enjoyed dramatically cleaner air during the virus outbreak as well. Fifty cities are monitored by the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), and the data for March shows that 42 of them have had below-average levels of NO2. Paris and London, for example, had a 30% reduction in the pollutant.
Vincent-Henri Peuch, the director of CAMS, said:
We do expect pollution to rebound, but we have not been able yet to show that. The Cams data showed average air pollution levels across cities. Next to a busy road, the effect of traffic reduction will be higher – up to 70% or 80% [reduced pollution] in places.
What happens next to air quality in European cities remained to be seen. We do not know how people’s behavior will change, for example avoiding public transport and therefore relying more on their own cars, or continuing to work from home.
Gary Fuller, a Kings College London air pollution expert, said:
Rather than let this time be forgotten, the United Nations and environmental campaigners are urging governments to ‘build back better, to invest in the future, not the past’, to ensure that our global recovery has a sustainable legacy.
Not only has air pollution been linked to asthma, mental illness, heart and lung damage, a shortened life expectancy, and around 8 million premature deaths annually, but there’s also growing evidence that dirty air can increase the risk of death from COVID-19. Therefore, keeping air pollution low could help minimize the dangers of a second wave of infections when lockdown measures ease.
