The World Meteorological Organization under the leadership of the UN has given an update about the situation concerning Climate, and air quality in the year 2020.
According to the organization, many places experienced a decrease in the emissions of the major pollutants which they attribute to the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions however, they have also issued a warning that the reduction was “Patchy”, meaning that there were areas that did not show any improvement and might even have gotten worse.
The secretary-general of the WMO, Peterri Taalas, called the situation a temporary localized improvement because they have not considered the change as a substitute for the plans of actions they systematically have in place.
Head of the WMO Atmospheric Environment Research division, Oksana Tarasova mentioned that the change occurred due to the lessening of vehicles on the road as well as other pollution-causing factors, but according to Taalas once the mobility resumes it is back to square one with the major issue.
Overall, there has been a general reduction in the major pollutants such as Nitrogen Oxide that showed a 70 per cent decrease in South Asia, Sulphur dioxide and Carbon Monoxide especially in the regions of South America.
The WMO also reported that smoke as a result of burned biomass in Siberia and the US, along with wildfires in Australia, and “The Godzilla effect” from the Sahara dust caused pollution to rise in some areas however, overall 2020 saw a general decrease in the restriction protocols stemming from the pandemic.
