Abrupt exacerbation in air quality over Europe after the outbreak of Russia-Ukraine war

Abstract

Much attention has been paid to the world economy and social situations in response to the outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine in the context of COVID-19. However, much less attention has been paid to the detrimental effect of war on the atmospheric environment. Here, we used an extended deweathered-detrended technique to quantitatively evaluate changes in ambient NO2, O3, and PM2.5 AQI levels arising from emission changes (due to pandemic-driven lockdowns and war-related activities) in European cities. Results show pandemic-induced lockdowns mitigated regional air pollution in Europe, but the war activities led to an average increase of approximately 9.78% in PM2.5 and 10.07% in NO2, along with an average decrease of about 7.93% in O3 levels in cities near the war zones. Moreover, the regional air pollution exacerbated by the war activities has offset the improvements in air quality observed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The potential mechanism analysis show that the increase in atmospheric pollutant emissions driven by the war activities led to the complexity of chemical reactions in the mixed atmospheric system, which posed a huge challenge to the alleviation of air pollution in the region. This study highlights the urgent need for a ceasefire from an environmental perspective.

Keywords

• Air quality change
• Russia-Ukraine war impact
• Lockdown impact
• Quantitative analysis