Energy

Coronavirus Lockdowns Cause Dramatic Drop In Air Pollution


The dramatic slowdown in economic activity across Europe as a result of Coronavirus lockdowns can already be seen from space.

Almost all of the European Union has gone into lockdown, with the exception of Sweden, Hungary and the Netherlands. Today the European Space Agency published satellite images showing what a difference this has made to nitrogen dioxide concentrations over cities such as Paris, Madrid and Rome.

This pollution, normally caused by heavy industry and cars, has noticeably declined as factories are shut down and people work from home.

The European Union’s Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite has recently mapped air pollution across Europe and China and has revealed a significant drop in nitrogen dioxide concentrations coinciding with the strict lockdown measures.

Scientists from the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute have been using data from the satellite to monitor both weather and pollution over Europe. They used data from multiple days to ensure that and reduction seen wasn’t just a one-day fluke.

“The nitrogen dioxide concentrations vary from day to day due to changes in the weather,” says the institute’s Henk Eskes. “Conclusions cannot be drawn based on just one day of data alone.”

“The chemistry in our atmosphere is non-linear. Therefore, the percentage drop in concentrations may differ somewhat from the drop in emissions. Atmospheric chemistry models, which account for daily changes in weather, in combination with inverse modelling techniques are needed to quantify the emission based on the satellite observations.”

The change in France and Southern Europe has been the most pronounced because those countries have adopted the strictest and earliest lockdowns. Differences in the U.K., which only went into lockdown this week, and the Netherlands, which is still not in lockdown but has recommended non-essential businesses close, are not perceptible yet.

EU leaders agreed at a video summit last night to come up with a joint exit strategy from the lockdowns, to be presented by the European Commission next week. “Every single day costs a lot of economic power,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after the summit. Lifting too early would jeapordize health, while lifting too late would jeapordize the economy, she added.

Some have suggested that the decrease in carbon emissions as a result of the economic slowdown means the EU should back off on its green deal measures to completely decarbonise the bloc by 2050, because emissions are going down on their own. But French President Emmanuel Macron has said it’s essential for the EU’s economic recovery measures to have emissions reduction at their core.

Text to this effect was added to the EU leaders summit conclusions last night.



READ NEWS SOURCE

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.