28 Mar 2020

Coronavirus causing unheard of reduction in air pollution

From Saturday Morning, 8:40 am on 28 March 2020

There might be one silver lining to the novel coronavirus pandemic; clean air.

With major restrictions on transport and manufacturing, we are seeing a huge reduction in levels of air pollution around the world.

Paul Monks used to chair the UK government’s science advisory committee on air quality. Now Professor of Air Pollution at the University of Leicester, he’s been studying European Space Agency satellite data that shows a huge drop in the levels of common pollutants like nitrogen dioxide across the world.

He describes the situation as the “largest scale experiment ever” in the impact of reducing emissions.

The University of Leicester's professor Paul Monks

The University of Leicester's professor Paul Monks Photo: Supplied