COVID-19 restrictions bring brief air-quality gains in 2020

WMO report says pandemic-related curbs temporarily improved air quality in number of places, especially in urban areas.

Pandemic lockdowns and travel restrictions caused dramatic but short-lived improvements in air quality and drops in pollution, the United Nations has said, but warned the blip was no substitute for long-term action. A new report on Friday from the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) found that COVID-19 restrictions last year temporarily improved air quality in a number of places, especially in urban areas. But they also spurred an increase in some pollutants that were both hazardous to health and had an unclear impact on climate change.