1. Direct observations of CO2 emission reductions due to COVID-19 lockdown across European urban districts
- Author
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Giacomo Nicolini, Gabriele Antoniella, Federico Carotenuto, Andreas Christen, Philippe Ciais, Christian Feigenwinter, Beniamino Gioli, Stavros Stagakis, Erik Velasco, Roland Vogt, Helen C. Ward, Janet Barlow, Nektarios Chrysoulakis, Pierpaolo Duce, Martin Graus, Carole Helfter, Bert Heusinkveld, Leena Järvi, Thomas Karl, Serena Marras, Valéry Masson, Bradley Matthews, Fred Meier, Eiko Nemitz, Simone Sabbatini, Dieter Scherer, Helmut Schume, Costantino Sirca, Gert-Jan Steeneveld, Carolina Vagnoli, Yilong Wang, Alessandro Zaldei, Bo Zheng, Dario Papale, Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR), SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT EMERGING FROM THE MERGER OF CUTTING-EDGE CLIMATE, SOCIAL AND COMPUTER SCIENCES, Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS), Urban meteorology, Helsinki Institute of Urban and Regional Studies (Urbaria), Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette] (LSCE), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Météo-France, GA 776186, MA 7 – 596744/17, GA 958927, 105, 26/5/2020, University of California, UC, Natural Environment Research Council, NERC: NE/H003169/1, NE/K002279/1, NE/T001798/2, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG: SCHE 750/8-1, SCHE 750/9-1, Vienna Science and Technology Fund, WWTF: ESR20-030, Academy of Finland, AKA: 311932, 321527, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF: FKZ 01LP1602A, Austrian Science Fund, FWF: M2244, P30600, Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, NWO: 864.14.007, VIR16002, Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca, MIUR, Horizon 2020: 836443, and G.N. and S.Sa. thank the support of the ICOS Ecosystem Thematic Centre . G.A. thanks the support of the CHE H2020 Project ( GA 776186 ). D.P. thanks the support of the ' Departments of Excellence-2018 ' MIUR Program DIBAF 'Landscape 4.0' and the CoCO2 H2020 ( GA 958927 ) projects. G.J.S. acknowledges the funding from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research ( NWO ) VIDI grant 'The Windy City' (file 864.14.007 ) and the funding from the Amsterdam Institute for Metropolitan Solutions for the AAMS observational network (Project VIR16002 ). L.J. acknowledges the Academy of Finland profiling action (grant number 311932 ) and CarboCity project (grant number 321527 ). FI-Helsinki is a station part of the ICOS network. N.C. thanks the support of the Municipality of Heraklion (Contract 105, 26/5/2020 ). F.M. and D.S. acknowledge the funding for instrumentation of the Urban Climate Observatory ( UCO ) Berlin from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft ( DFG ) grant SCHE 750/8-1 and SCHE 750/9-1 of Research Unit 1736 'Urban Climate and Heat Stress in Mid-Latitude Cities in View of Climate Change (UCaHS)' and the research programme 'Urban Climate Under Change ([UC] 2 )', funded by the German Ministry of Research and Education ( FKZ 01LP1602A ). B.M. and H.S. acknowledge the funding from the City of Vienna ( MA 7 – 596744/17 ) and the Vienna Science and Technology Fund ( ESR20-030 ) as well as the support of A1 Telekom Austria in establishing and maintaining the measurement station at the A1 Arsenal tower. S.St. acknowledges funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 836443. E.N. and C.H acknowledge funding from the UK Natural Environment Research Council ( NE/H003169/1 , NE/K002279/1 , NE/T001798/2 ) and thank the British Telecom for the access to the BT Tower and for supporting day-to-day activities. T.G.K., M.G. and H.C.W. acknowledge funding from the Austrian FWF (grant numbers P30600 and M2244 ).
- Subjects
Environmental Engineering ,WIMEK ,Traffic emissions ,Eddy-covariance ,Urban pollution ,Pollution ,114 Physical sciences ,Atmospheric Sciences ,Meteorology ,Corona virus pandemic ,[SDE]Environmental Sciences ,Social restrictions ,Environmental Chemistry ,ddc:577 ,Waste Management and Disposal ,Meteorologie ,Urban fluxes - Abstract
International audience; 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, from city to city as well as between different areas of the same city. We found that, during the first lockdowns, urban CO2 emissions were cut with respect to the same period in previous years by 5% to 87% across the analysed districts, mainly as a result of limitations on mobility. However, as the restrictions were lifted in the following months, emissions quickly rebounded to their pre-COVID levels in the majority of sites.
- Published
- 2022
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