Air pollution has decreased in urban areas across Europe during lockdowns to combat the coronavirus, new satellite images showed on Monday, but campaigners warned city-dwellers were still more vulnerable to the epidemic.
Cities including Brussels, Paris, Madrid, Milan and Frankfurt showed a reduction in average levels of noxious nitrogen dioxide between March 5 and March 25 compared with the same period last year, according to the Sentinel-5 satellite images.
That coincides with lockdowns in many European countries which have curbed road transport — the largest source of nitrogen oxides — and slowed output at gas-emitting factories.
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