Covid Lockdown, Travel Restrictions Slightly Improved Air Quality: UN Agency

A new report from the UN's World Meteorological Organization found that Covid restrictions last year temporarily improved air quality in a 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 UN said on Friday, but warned the blip was no substitute for long-term action. A new report 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. "Covid-19 proved to be an unplanned air-quality experiment," WMO chief Petteri Taalas said in a statement.