Sweden's municipalities have reported the previous year's air quality data to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The reporting shows a clear improvement from previous years.
- The main sources of nitrogen dioxide emissions are road traffic and heavy vehicles.
Industries also emit nitrogen dioxide, but those emissions are often made further away from people and are therefore not as harmful, says Matthew Ross-Jones, manager at the Air Unit.
In 2018 and 2019, there were respectively five and seven municipalities in the country that emitted too much nitrogen dioxide.
The following year showed a clear improvement.
The 2020 and 2021 measurements showed that only one municipality exceeded the emissions of nitrogen dioxide, namely the municipality of Umeå.
- It is the climate up here that causes it.
It is also due to the fact that we have weak winds during the winter so that the exhaust gases do not have time to fan out of the street room, says Umeå municipality's environmental inspector, Helena Hallengren.
Action program against emissions
The municipality takes several measures against the poor air quality, but the fact that Umeå is a growing city makes the work more difficult, says environmental inspector Helena Hallengren:
- We need to densify Umeå because we need more housing, and a dense street environment means that the bad air stays longer.
A major change is to complete the Western link in order to divert heavy traffic.
Hear environmental inspector Helena Hallengren about Umeå's air quality in the clip.