Confinement measures also plummet pollution levels in Spain

As already happened in China or Italy, the exceptional confinement measures against the new coronavirus are causing pollution levels in Spain to fall sharply. This is the case of Madrid and Barcelona, where concentrations of nitrogen dioxide – a pollutant closely linked to traffic and the generation of electricity with fossil fuels – have plummeted during the first days of the state of alarm, according to an analysis by Greenpeace. This NGO explains that it is at “historic lows” in the two cities.

In Madrid, for example, on Tuesday 17 the average level of nitrogen dioxide recorded in the stations of the city was almost 75% lower than on Tuesday of the previous week. In Barcelona, the decrease exceeded 45%, according to data compiled by Adrián Fernández, responsible for Greenpeace’s Mobility campaign. Although Fernández points out that it is also necessary to take into account the meteorological conditions – at the beginning of the week there was a storm that contributed to improving air quality – he affirms that there is a clear incidence of the reduction of vehicle traffic, which has fallen “around 60%” in both capitals with the application of the confinement.

The conclusions of this NGO are in line with what institutions such as NASA or the European Space Agency have already disseminated about China or Italy through the satellite measurements they make. The Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service, under the European Commission, reported on Wednesday that in northern Italy “observations on the surface density of the pollutant nitrogen dioxide show a trend of gradual reduction of around 10% per week over the last four to five weeks.” In Hubei province, according to a report by China’s Ministry of Ecology, the average number of days with good air quality increased during February by 21.5% compared to the same month last year.

“It is absolutely logical that pollution should be reduced,” explains Xavier Querol, a researcher at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). “On Sundays there is less pollution on average because there is less industry and traffic, and now we are with less traffic and industry,” he adds. But Querol warns: “The fight against pollution is a long-distance race and not sprints.”

This researcher, like other experts, for example, on climate change, fears what may happen when this crisis passes and activity recovers. “Everything that has been left undone will be done and the activity will be accelerated,” he says. And there can be a rebound effect like the one observed in previous crises.

In the global recession of 2008, global emissions of carbon dioxide — the main greenhouse gas — fell by about 1%. But in the following years they rose again and even emissions grew faster than before the crisis driven by measures to stimulate production and demand. “We are not going to fight climate change with a virus,” Un Secretary-General António Guterres warned last week.

The same could be said about pollution problems, the levels of which are not falling due to structural changes, but due to the coronavirus containment measures that are paralyzing economic activity. The pandemic may cause the opposite when trying to revive the economy. Querol believes that it will be difficult for measures to be resumed to, for example, raise the limitations on pollutants. “Environmental policies are not going to be stricter,” summarizes this researcher.

Source: The Country