Diesel passenger vehicle shares influenced Covid-19 changes in urban nitrogen dioxide pollution
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15549544 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gaige Hunter Kerr (0000-0001-8869-0752, Milken Institute, corresponding author), Daniel L Goldberg (0000-0003-0784-3986, Milken Institute), K Emma Knowland (0000-0003-0837-8502, Goddard Space Flight Center), Christoph A Keller (0000-0002-0552-4298, Goddard Space Flight Center), Dolly Oladini, Iyad Kheirbek (Climate Central), Lucy Mahoney, Zifeng Lü (0000-0001-7331-5861, Argonne National Laboratory), Susan C Anenberg (0000-0002-9668-603X, Milken Institute) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 7 |
| Pages | 074010-074010 |
| Publication date | 2022-06-07 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environmental Research Letters (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326 |
| Publisher | IOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1088/1748-9326/ac7659 |
| OpenAlex | W4281718516 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 45 |
Diesel-powered vehicles emit several times more nitrogen oxides than comparable gasoline-powered vehicles, leading to ambient nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) pollution and adverse health impacts. The COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing changes in emissions provide a natural experiment to test whether NO 2 reductions have been starker in regions of Europe with larger diesel passenger vehicle shares. Here we use a semi-empirical approach that combines in-situ NO 2 observations from urban areas and an atmospheric composition model within a machine learning algorithm to estimate business-as-usual NO 2 during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. These estimates account for the moderating influences of meteorology, chemistry, and traffic. Comparing the observed NO 2 concentrations against business-as-usual estimates indicates that diesel passenger vehicle shares played a major role in the magnitude of NO 2 reductions. European cities with the five largest shares of diesel passenger vehicles experienced NO 2 reductions ∼ 2.5 times larger than cities with the five smallest diesel shares. Extending our methods to a cohort of non-European cities reveals that NO 2 reductions in these cities were generally smaller than reductions in European cities, which was expected given their small diesel shares. We identify potential factors such as the deterioration of engine controls associated with older diesel vehicles to explain spread in the relationship between cities’ shares of diesel vehicles and changes in NO 2 during the pandemic. Our results provide a glimpse of potential NO 2 reductions that could accompany future deliberate efforts to phase out or remove passenger vehicles from cities
Air pollution · Atmospheric sciences · Business · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Diesel engine · Diesel fuel · Geography · Meteorology · Nitrogen dioxide · NOx · Physics · Air Quality and Health Impacts · Air Quality Monitoring and Forecasting · Chemistry · COVID-19 impact on air quality · Engineering · Environmental Science · Automotive Engineering · Pollution
Premature mortality due to air pollution in European cities
Covid-19 lockdowns cause global air pollution declines
The global impacts of Covid-19 lockdowns on urban air pollution
Impact of excess NO x emissions from diesel cars on air quality, public health and eutrophication in Europe
How have surface NO 2 concentrations changed as a result of the UK’s Covid-19 travel restrictions
Covid-19 lockdown only partially alleviates health impacts of air pollution in Northern Italy
A fuel-based method for updating mobile source emissions during the Covid-19 pandemic
On the impact of excess diesel NO X emissions upon NO 2 pollution in a compact city
Potential reductions in ambient NO 2 concentrations from meeting diesel vehicle emissions standards
A global panel database of pandemic policies (Oxford Covid-19 Government Response Tracker)
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |