Fri 03 September 2021:
The UN said on Friday that pandemic lockdowns and travel restrictions resulted in huge but temporary improvements in air quality and reductions in pollution, but warned that the blip was no alternative for long-term action.
According to a new analysis from the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Covid-19 limitations last year improved air quality in a number of locations, particularly in metropolitan areas.
They did, however, cause a surge in some pollutants that were both harmful to human health and had an unknown impact on climate change.
“Covid-19 proved to be an unplanned air-quality experiment,” WMO chief Petteri Taalas said in a statement.
“It did lead to temporary localised improvements,” he said.
“But a pandemic is not a substitute for sustained and systematic action to tackle major drivers of both pollution and climate change and so safeguard the health of both people and planet.”
Air pollution, particularly that involving tiny particles, has a significant impact on human health and is responsible for millions of fatalities each year.
The World Meteorological Organization’s report was based on research into how important air pollutants behaved in and around dozens of cities around the world.
Small particle concentrations dropped by up to 40% during complete lockdown compared to the same periods in 2015-2019, according to the study.
This resulted in overall better air quality, albeit it deteriorated after emissions resumed following the lockdown.
The WMO also noted that as human-caused emissions had fallen in many places, there had been an increase in levels of ozone — which in the stratosphere provides important protection from cancer-causing ultraviolet rays but which closer to the ground is very hazardous for human health.
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