Direct observations of CO₂ emission reductions due to COVID-19 lockdown across European urban districts.

ABSTRACT: The measures taken to contain the spread of COVID-19 in 2020 included restrictions of people's mobility and reductions in economic activities. These drastic changes in daily life, enforced through national lockdowns, led to abrupt reductions of anthropogenic CO₂ emissions in urbanized areas all over the world. To examine the effect of social restrictions on local emissions of CO₂, we analysed district level CO₂ fluxes measured by the eddy-covariance technique from 13 stations in 11 European cities. The data span several years before the pandemic until October 2020 (six months after the pandemic began in Europe). All sites showed a reduction in CO₂ emissions during the national lockdowns. The magnitude of these reductions varies in time and space,

SUBMITTER: Nicolini G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8934179 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature