Turning many places into ghost towns for months, COVID-19 lockdowns resulted in “unprecedented” improvements in air quality in some parts of the world but did not turn out to be enough to halt climate change caused by global warming.
Major industrial countries and regions including China, Europe, and North America were among the place that saw reductions in emissions of harmful gases and improved air quality during the pandemic’s first year.
On the other hand, countries such as Sweden saw less dramatic improvements because existing air quality contained comparatively lower microparticle levels (PM2.5) of harmful sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), and ozone (O3).
A UN report Saturday cited the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)’s Air Quality and Climate Bulletin, saying South East Asia saw a 40 percent reduction in the level of harmful airborne particles caused by traffic and energy production in 2020.
According to Dr Oksana Tarasova, chief of WMO’s Atmospheric Environment Research Division, clean air development had been welcome for many people with breathing difficulties. The absence of harmful microparticles left the path clear for naturally occurring ozone, “which is one of the most dangerous pollutants,” Tarasova says.
“So, despite such an unexpected experiment with atmospheric chemistry, we noticed that in many parts of the world, even if you take down the transport and some other emissions, air quality would not meet the requirements of the World Health Organization (WHO),” she told journalists in Geneva.
Yet since the pandemic breakout, weather extremes fuelled by climate and environmental change triggered unprecedented sandstorms including the June 2020 “Godzilla” dust cloud – the largest African dust storm on record – and wildfires from Australia to Siberia, which has worsened air quality significantly.
“This trend is continuing in 2021,” said WMO, pointing to devastating wildfires in North America, Europe and the Russian tundra, that have “affected air quality for millions, and sand and dust storms (that) have blanketed many regions and traveled across continents”.
Researchers say air pollution has a significant impact on human health. Estimates from the latest Global Burden of Disease assessment show that global mortality increased from 2.3 million in 1990 – with 91 percent owing to particulate matter, nine percent attributed to ozone – to 4.5 million in 2019 – 92 percent from particulates, eight percent from ozone).
The Air Quality and Climate Bulletin – WMO’s first – is based on studying key air-pollutants from more than 540 observation stations in and around 63 cities from 25 countries, across the world’s seven geographical regions.
Analysis showed decreases of up to 30–40 percent overall of PM2.5 concentrations during the full lockdown in 2020, compared with the same periods in 2015–2019.
