In a report that examined the air quality of 100 global cities, 19 were found to have substantially improved since 2010.
9 of the 19 were in China and Hong Kong, while the rest were located in Europe, and include both large and small cities.
In the US, San Francisco managed to reduce both health-harming fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and airway aggravating nitrogen dioxide (NO2).
There is no minimum safe level of PM2.5, which refers to the particulate’s diameter of 2.5 micrometers, and it’s been linked to many different diseases, from asthma to Alzheimer’s, all throughout a human life.
“This report shows that cities can achieve what was once thought impossible: cutting toxic air pollution by 20-45% in a little over a decade,” said Cecilia Vaca Jones, recently-appointed executive director of Breathe Cities, one of the organizations behind the report.
“This isn’t just happening in one corner of the world; from Warsaw to Bangkok, cities are proving that we have the tools to solve this crisis right now.”
For each of the 19 city success stories, different combinations of measures were employed, such as replacing internal combustion engine vehicles with electric ones, adding more bike lanes in crowded European cities, and placing restrictions on woodburning stoves and fossil fuel power plants within city limits.
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Beijing and Warsaw reduced PM2.5 the most—by more than 45%, while Amsterdam and Rotterdam saw the greatest improvement in nitrogen dioxide, also above 40%. San Francisco reduced both by 20%.
PM2.5 was more often reduced in European cities, which have focused more on switching electricity sources to clean energy, while Chinese/Asian cities had greater reductions in NO2 because of the greater focus on replacing ICE cars with EVs.
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