Less gasoline means less pollution
The paper notes that motor gasoline consumption fell by almost half during the pandemic’s early weeks, with a similar, corresponding drop seen in carbon dioxide emissions. Motor gasoline consumption added 8,253.52 million kilograms of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere in April 2019, according to the authors’ data. That number dropped to 4,593.01 million kilograms in April 2020.
There have also been significant drops in the concentration levels of nitrogen dioxide in Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto and Montreal since the beginning of the pandemic. Similarly, concentration levels of carbon monoxide, closely linked to the transportation and mobile equipment sectors, dropped. In Edmonton, carbon monoxide concentration levels fell by as much as 50 per cent, from 0.14 parts per million in March 2018 to 0.07 in March 2020.
Emissions began to grow again over the summer, but the researchers have not yet had a chance to examine data from the second lockdown that began in late fall/winter 2020.
Aside from providing a kind of snapshot of a particularly unusual period, the data can also help governments assess the long-term impact of replacing gas-burning vehicles with electric ones on Canadian city streets.
“This pandemic provided an opportunity for scenario analysis, although it wasn’t done on purpose,” says An, Concordia University Research Chair in Spill Response and Remediation.
“Governments everywhere are trying to reduce their use of carbon-based fuels. Now we have some data that shows what happens when we reduce the number of gasoline-powered vehicles and the effect that has on emissions.”
The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) provided support for this study.
Read the cited paper: “Assessing the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on urban transportation and air quality in Canada.”