Last year’s unprecedented lockdown measures led to a dramatic — but brief — improvement in air quality around the world, the United Nations’ weather agency said in a new report Friday.
Last year’s unprecedented lockdown measures led to a dramatic — but brief — improvement in air quality around the world, the United Nations’ weather agency said in a new report Friday. The temporary reduction in key air pollutants was more significant in urban areas, where offices and retail stores were forced to shut down to slow the spread of COVID-19, but the drop was not uniform across all regions. While some areas saw declines of up to 70% in average levels of nitrogen oxides, others saw small increases, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s inaugural Air Quality and Climate Bulletin. The level of particulate matter in southeast Asia was especially lower, with drops of up to 40% compared to the same periods every year between 2015 to 2019, the report shows.
