Halved exhaust emissions since the corona eruption

The economy has slowed down and it benefits the environment. More and more people are working from home, freight transport has decreased and public transport runs on a narrower timetable. The effect is that Stockholm's environmental management can read in its air measurements.

The proportion of emissions of the hazardous nitrogen oxides is some 50% lower on certain days. The figure is based on a comparison with the average emissions during the same period 2017-2019. The cleaner air is a health benefit for those with lung disease as the air becomes easier to breathe.

The traffic flow, which is measured on Hornsgatan and Sveavägen in Stockholm city, among other things, has decreased by 30 percent. Carbon dioxide emissions are more difficult to measure because they are long-lived in the atmosphere. But they too have probably gone down by about 30 percent in Stockholm, according to researchers with whom SVT has been in contact.

Exact figures will be announced this summer, says Stockholm University, which is responsible for the measurements on behalf of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. Measurements in Malmö also show less traffic and lower emissions.

The air in big cities like London, Madrid, Frankfurt and Paris has cleared. New satellite images from the European Space Agency show how it is a lower nitrogen oxide density during the period March 5- 25 compared to the same period last year. In Venice, the water is clear blue again after almost all boat traffic has ceased.

The pandemic has also led to flying more than halved across the globe. In the airspace across the United States and Europe, the number of planes has decreased dramatically. At airports, hundreds of aircraft are parked on the ground.

The environmental effects of canceled flights will also be readable in the future, but is not expected to be dramatic as the flight globally accounts for 2.5 percent of carbon dioxide emissions.

In China, since the outbreak of Corona, carbon dioxide emissions have dropped by 25-30 percent, according to the US Space Agency. This corresponds to approximately 200 million tonnes. Since China is the world's largest greenhouse gas emissions country, this is a significant reduction. This corresponds to the entire UK emissions for six months.

Satellite images of the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak began, show how the health hazardous levels of particles have dropped sharply.

But the economic slowdown is also negative for climate work. The conversion to fossil-free energy sources requires large investments and now many companies, including the aerospace industry, are bleeding money.

The global climate negotiations under the auspices of the UN are ongoing year-round but have now slowed down due to canceled meetings and negotiations. In November, world leaders will gather for global summit at COP 26 negotiations in British Glasgow.

But last week, the UK's foreign minister flagged that COP26 may have to be postponed, a climate summit that is considered to be the most important in many years.

One possibility mentioned is that the meeting is then moved to a country that has, with acknowledged great success, fought the outbreak of the coronavirus, for example South Korea.