How is the COVID-19 Crisis Affecting Nitrogen Dioxide Emissions in Sub-Saharan Africa?
Daily estimates of Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2)—one of a group of pollutant gases that derive from human activity, primarily combustion—can provide a useful, albeit "noisy", real-time proxy measure of how COVID-19 has affected economic activity...
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| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2020
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/771781590088679352/How-is-the-COVID-19-Crisis-Affecting-Nitrogen-Dioxide-Emissions-in-Sub-Saharan-Africa http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33801 |
| Summary: | Daily estimates of Nitrogen Dioxide
(NO2)—one of a group of pollutant gases that derive from
human activity, primarily combustion—can provide a useful,
albeit "noisy", real-time proxy measure of how
COVID-19 has affected economic activity. To examine how the
crisis affects NO2 levels in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), we
calculated mean daily NO2 tropospheric estimates for 43
regions that contain either national capitals or large urban
areas for the period July 2018 to April 2020. We found that
emissions reductions in April were sizeable, larger in more
developed areas, and large in many but not all of the
countries that implemented national lockdowns. Overall, the
data suggest that NO2 readings contain useful information to
help track the reduction in motorized transport, and
possibly overall economic activity, in urban, developed areas. |
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