UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : WMO Press conference: Air Quality and Climate Bulletin

WMO Press conference: Air Quality and Climate Bulletin - 30 August 2024

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30-08-2024

Edited News , Press Conferences | WMO

WMO Press conference: Air Quality and Climate Bulletin - 05 September 2024

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Shotlist Story

Story: WMO Press conference: Air Quality and Climate Bulletin

TRT: 03’08”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 05 September 2024 - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
RESTRICTIONS: NONE

SHOTLIST

Exterior medium shot: UN flag alley.
Wide shot of the podium at the press conference room.
SOUNDBITE (English) Lorenzo Labrador, Scientific Officer, WMO: “Almost everybody on Earth, basically nine out of 10 people breathe air that is essentially unfit for purpose. This means that it is air that exceeds the WHO guideline limits and contains a high level of pollutants with low and middle-income countries basically being the most affected.”
Medium-wide, podium speakers and Press room.
SOUNDBITE (English) Lorenzo Labrador, Scientific Officer, WMO: “Ambient air pollution alone mostly coming from vehicles and industry causes more than 4.5 million premature deaths a year. Just for context, this is more than those death by malaria and HIV AIDS combined; so air pollution is the biggest environmental risk of our time. But not only is it a health risk in itself, it also exacerbates climate change.”
Medium, podium speakers from above, TV screens showing speakers in Press room.
SOUNDBITE (English) Lorenzo Labrador, Scientific Officer, WMO: “We tend to believe that the lower pollution in Europe and China are the direct result of a reduction in emissions in those countries over the years, and we have been noticing this tendency since we started publishing the bulletin back in 2021. So, we can say that we are starting to see a tendency in that regard.”
Medium-wide, podium speakers and Press room.
SOUNDBITE (English) Lorenzo Labrador, Scientific Officer, WMO: “Whereas particulate matter is responsible for about eight million premature death a year worldwide, you would not find surprising that the focus is usually on the effects of particular matter on health. However, a 2023 World Meteorological Organization report pointed out that particulate matter can severely affect the productivity of crops - of staple crops - such as maize, rice and wheat.
Medium-close, TV screen showing Mr. Labrador.
SOUNDBITE (English) Lorenzo Labrador, Scientific Officer, WMO: “Many of this particulate matter pollution that affect crop yields are due to man-made practices, which include the land use practices such as tillage and harvesting. Also, application of fertilizers and stubble-burning at the end the season, of the growing seasons.”
Medium, speaker’s hands on desk and screen.
SOUNDBITE (English) Lorenzo Labrador, Scientific Officer, WMO: “We reported back in 2022 about the 2021 wildfire season in Siberia, which was very, very strong. But there are indications that the wildfire that we had in Canada last year was even stronger with respect to emissions. It broke records concerning the amount of surface area burned over a 20-year period in Canada.”
Medium-wide, raised shot of podium speakers and Press room.
SOUNDBITE (English) Lorenzo Labrador, Scientific Officer, WMO: “The first thing that cities have to do is to recognize that the problem exists in the first place. So, those cities and those countries have to acknowledge first that there is an air quality problem and there is sufficient data around the world to basically acknowledge that it is a worldwide problem, particularly in urban areas.”
Wide, podium and speakers with UN logo providing backdrop.
Medium, journalist.

We must do more to keep the air we breathe clean: UN weather agency

Unchecked climate change, wildfires and air pollution continue to have “a spiralling, negative impact on health, ecosystems and agriculture”, with millions of deaths attributed to dirty air, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.

“Almost everybody on Earth, basically nine out of 10 people breathe air that is essentially unfit for purpose,” said Lorenzo Labrador, Scientific Officer at WMO. “This means that it is air that exceeds the [UN World Health Organization] WHO guideline limits and contains a high level of pollutants with low and middle-income countries basically being the most affected.”

Heat driver

That stark finding is just one of many unsettling discoveries featuring in the latest WMO Air Quality and Climate Bulletin. It highlights, for instance, that the first eight months of 2024 have seen no let-up in periods of intense heat and persistent droughts around the world, fuelling the risk of wildfires and air pollution.

“Climate change means that we face this scenario with increasing frequency. Interdisciplinary science and research is key to finding solutions,” the UN agency warned.

The clear link between polluted air and poor health is clear, according to the WHO, which has urged global action to counter “one of the greatest environmental risks to health” and numerous preventable illnesses including stroke, heart disease, lung cancer and acute respiratory diseases, including asthma.

“Ambient air pollution alone mostly coming from vehicles and industry causes more than 4.5 million premature deaths a year,” WMO’s Mr. Labrador told journalists in Geneva.

“This is more than those death by malaria and HIV AIDS combined; so air pollution is the biggest environmental risk of our time. But not only is it a health risk in itself, it also exacerbates climate change.”

Regional trends

A snapshot of regional emissions variations featured in the UN agency report indicated a trend for “lower pollution in Europe and China” than North America and India, where there was an increase in pollution emissions from human and industrial activities.

This is likely the “direct result of a reduction in emissions in those countries over the years, and we have been noticing this tendency since we started publishing the bulletin back in 2021.”

And while it is generally widely understood that polluted air containing microscopic particulates - including sulphates, nitrates, ammonia, soot from human activity and wildfires - is harmful, Mr. Labrador reiterated the UN agency’s 2023 findings that these and other pollutants have a damaging impact on food security, too.

Crop yields down

“Particulate matter can severely affect the productivity of crops - of staple crops - such as maize, rice and wheat,” he said. “Many of this particulate matter pollution that affect crop yields are due to man-made practices, which include the land use practices such as tillage and harvesting. Also, application of fertilizers and stubble-burning at the end the season, of the growing seasons.”

New data-crunching on naturally occurring wildfires around the world last year also indicated that the inferno that spread across Canada in 2023 “was even stronger with respect to emissions” than the 2021 wildfire season in Siberia – although that was “very, very strong”, the WMO officer insisted.

“[The Canada fires] broke records concerning the amount of surface area burned over a 20-year period.”

To coincide with this year’s Clean Air for Blue Skies Day on Saturday 7 September, the UN agency urged governments to protect health, the environment and the economy, given the cost ramifications of the air pollution.

“The first thing that cities have to do is to recognize that the problem exists in the first place,” Mr. Labrador said. “So, those cities and those countries have to acknowledge first that there is an air quality problem and there is sufficient data around the world to basically acknowledge that it is a worldwide problem, particularly in urban areas.”

Teleprompter

Yes, good afternoon everybody.

Thank you very much for joining us at the press conference of the World Meteorological Organisation.

I see there are quite a few people on online even though we're speaking to an empty room here and I, I know it was a busy briefing day.

So, so thank you.

Thank you for joining us anyway.

So we're here today to launch the annual World Meteorological Organisation Bulletin on Air Quality and Climate.

This is something that we do every year ahead of the International Day of Blue Skies for Clean Air, which falls on the 7th of September every every year.

We are embargoing the contents of this press conference and the press release and the report to Thursday the 5th of September.

So that's a couple of days ahead ahead of the day itself.

The press release will be available in in all official UN languages.

At the moment we only have the English version, but it will, you know, it will be available in the other languages hopefully by by by Monday and we will send that out to you.

So grateful if you could respect the embargo.

The press conference will be in English.

If there are requests for follow up interviews with my colleague Dr Lorenzo Labrador, he can do them in Spanish and French.

So without any further ado, I'll hand over the floor to Doctor Lorenzo Labrador.

He's a scientific officer in our the WMO Global Atmosphere Watch programme and he's the coordinator of this report.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Claire.

Welcome everybody.

It is my pleasure to be here to launch the 2024 edition of the Air Quality and Climate Change Bulletin of the World Meteorological Organisation.

So I will start by just giving a very brief introduction of the framework within which these bulletins sits.

And it is, as you may know, in the framework of the Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies.

So the World Health Organisation data show that almost everybody on Earth, basically 9 out of 10 people, breathe air that is essentially unfit for purpose.

This means that it is air that exceeds The Who guideline limits and contains **** level of pollutants, with low and middle income countries basically being the most affected.

Ambient air pollution alone, mostly coming from the vehicles and industry, causes more than four and a half million perimeter death a year.

Just for context, this is more than those death by malaria and HIV AIDS combined.

So air pollution is the biggest environmental risk of our time, but not only is it a health risk in itself, it also exacerbates climate change.

And there will be more on that.

As I described the bulletin.

It also causes economic losses and reduces agricultural productivity amongst other things.

So, encouraged by the increased interest of the international community on air pollution, the UN General Assembly decided back in 2019 to declare the 7th of September of every year as the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies.

So it is in the framework of these days that the Air Quality, WM OS Air Quality and Climate Bulletin is every year produced for the community.

WM OS Air Quality and Climate Bulletin is part of a continuous effort to drive the message that air quality and climate change are two inextricably linked topics and should be tackled together.

We cannot treat air quality and climate change as separate, independent and isolated topics.

So in order to drive this message, every year we ask the community of scientists that advise the World Meteorological Organisation on matters pertaining to air quality to come together and submit stories based on their research and when possible, using data from the World Meteorological Organisation network of stations, to present and submit stories to us that highlight the interlinkages between climate change and air quality.

So every year our scientists come together, they'd submit a number of stories that are then collated and put together into our annual publication, which is the Air Quality and Climate Bulletin.

So this year's Air Quality and Climate Bulletin is no exception.

It covers a series of topics ranging from a global view of particulate matter pollution around the world from the Copernicus Anosceric Services and another agency as well.

There is also a story on the wildfire, particularly strong wildfire seasons in Canada and in Chile back in 2023.

There is a story on the effects of particulate matter pollution on the affecting crops and crop yields, which is something relatively new and that comes from a report published by the WMO back in 2023.

There's also a story on bioaerosols and another story on new particle formation.

So I will briefly describe each of the stories for your reference.

Let's start with the global picture of particulate matter pollution.

Back in 2023, we regularly use the services of the Copernicus Atmospheric Services, known as scams, to run what we call a reanalysis, which is a combined product between observations and satellite observations and modelling to basically give us a rundown of PM pollution around the world.

But this year and in order to add robustness to our product, we decided to combine it with a product called the Goddard Earth Observing Systems Reanalysis.

So we are having two products comparing global atmospheric pollution from particular matter around the world and that we are happy to say that both products essentially agree on the global picture.

So and the global picture is that we are seeing the trend whereby there is what we call a positive anomaly or essentially more PM than the reference period of 2003 to 2023 in areas such as Southeast Asia and India.

And on the other hand, we have, on the other hand, we have what we call a negative anomaly or less PM pollution in areas such as China in Europe.

And now we tend to believe that the lower pollution in Europe and China are the direct result of a reduction in emissions in those countries over the years.

And we have been noticing this tendency since we started publishing the bulletin back into 2000, 1000 and and 2021.

So we we can say that we are starting to see a tendency in that regard.

On the other hand, regarding for example, dust storms, we the the both products saw a decrease in dust emissions from the Sahara and the Arabian Peninsula.

And it's worth pointing out that these dust emissions from deserts are controlled by meteorological conditions and not necessarily by man made activity.

So this is not something that we can attribute in any way to man made activities.

But we have seen this decrease in the last year.

So we, we are happy that there is an agreement in, in both products that that validates basically the the, the publications that we've done with the CAMS free analysis before and we'll probably keep the second product on board to add robustness to to our observations.

We we also had a very interesting story on the effects of particular matter on crops.

And whereas particulate matter is responsible for about 8 million premature deaths a year worldwide, you would not find surprising that the focus is usually on the effects of particular matter on health.

However, a 2023 World Meteorological Organisation report pointed out that particular matter can severely affect the productivity of crops of staple crops such as maize, rice and wheat.

And so the scientists came together and synthesised this report in the bulletin.

And amongst the things that that that we found out was that in the hotspots, particular matter pollution areas such as Asia, Southeast Asia particularly and China, you have a big part of the population of the world's that needs feeding.

So any effects on crop yield in those areas is really critical in that we have found that basically studies in China have have concluded that the direct deposition or settling of particular matter from the air onto plants can physically block the leaves from receiving sunlight directly and also from exchanging gases, oxygen and carbon dioxide and water vapour between the leaves and the atmosphere.

And this has resulted, according to one study in yield losses for rice and wheat of about 4 1/2% for each of those two staple crops.

So the effects are noticeable and have been studied before.

Also, particular matter not only settles on the leaves, but it also diffuses light and basically reduces the amount of light that reaches the leaves and therefore reduces their ability to do the photosynthesis and create those crops.

And those effects have also been measuring in modelling studies and up to 1010 to 15% have been seen in modelling studies to be a crop yield loss due to these effects.

So the bulletin also noticed that many of these particular matter pollution that affects crop yields are due to mine made practises which include land use practises such as steelage and harvesting.

Also application of fertilisers and stubble burning at the end of of of the season of the growing seasons.

So the bulletin offers solutions that range from solutions at at the farm level, such as planting trees around crops in order to shield the land and provide basically a physical barrier to dust pollution, to other enhanced agricultural practises such as avoiding reducing emissions of PM and avoiding ammonia volatilisation, which is one of the main responsibles for PM on crops.

So this is basically a fairly new and recent study in that we wish to draw the attention of the community to the effects of particulate matter on crops as well.

Another story that also caught the attention of the scientific community concerning air quality and climate change was the unusually strong 2023 wildfire seasons in Canada and in Chile.

Starting with Canada back in May 2023, there was a persistent and severe drought situation in Western Canada that started the fire season relatively early in May.

So fires starting started in in West Canada in May and as the as the summer drew on those conditions spread to Eastern Canada and then we had fires starting in Quebec.

So that fire season resulted in a noticeable degradation of her quality not only in Canada but also in the Northeastern United States.

But furthermore, networks were able to measure the the smoke pollution that came from those fire as far the field as southern Greenland, Iceland, the Azores Island and even Western Europe.

So this is to draw the message that pollution knows no boundaries and that basically forest fires that occur in Canada can reach as far a field as across the Atlantic and into Europe.

Likewise, in January and February 2023, we had an unusual an unusually strong wildfire season in Chile, particularly around the Santiago de Chile metropolitan region with over 400 wildfires, many of them the result of arson and land clearing, but many of them also sparked by the initially warm and dry conditions in that year.

So measurement stations basically not only measure the smoke pollution and particulate matter that comes out of those fires, but they also measure **** Co concentrations.

And Co is a very strong precursor of ozone of ground level ozone.

And concurrently, spikes in ozone up to 127 parts per billion were measured around the area of the fires, basically making the relationship between the dry and hot conditions and the emissions of precursor of ozone such as VOCS and Co.

So for comparison, the average ozone concentration at ground level is about 51 PPV, which is in line with the World Health Organisation maximum daily, 8 hour daily exposure average for for the region.

So we had two very strong wildfires.

Likewise, we reported back in 2022 about the 2021 wildfire season in Siberia, which has very, very strong.

But there is indications that the wildfire that we had in Canada last year was even stronger with respect to emissions.

It broke records concerning the amount of surface area burned over a 20 year.

In Canada, so we also had a story on bio aerosols and that bio aerosols are important for a number of reasons.

First off, they are a big source of allergies.

So pollen and bacteria and spores from plants can be a big source of allergy, but they're also a very good biomarkers and indications of when plants the plant cycle start and stop.

So up until now the pollen measuring stations have rely on manual methods.

But the in the story that we feature, basically it, it mentions the advent of new technologies that are basically making it possible to analyse in near real time the composition of pollens and bio aerosols by a new set of technologies that are being deployed in network stations mostly across Europe.

At that at this moment.

These networks, given the technology involved in the in the instruments require a huge data infrastructure that has to be created and created.

And that basically allows those data to then be ingested into models that can more accurately predict pollen concentrations and basically make it easier for allergy softwares around the world to know where the hotspots for bioaerosols are.

So there is good news in the in the way that technology is lending a hand in us being able to make better predictions of higher aerosols.

And last and not least, we have a a a nice piece on what we call new particle formation episodes.

Basically in the atmosphere and depending on the type of pollutants there are, you can form new particles from old ones or from smaller ones.

For example, cloud droplets form from the accumulation of water vapour onto aerosols that are already present in the air.

And a long term long term analysis of data from the Global Atmosphere Watch network of stations seems to indicate that there is a measurable decrease in what we call new particle formation episodes around the world, and that is particularly over urban areas.

Researchers notice at about a 4% decrease year on year on new particle formations.

So I hear you ask, what is the cause for this decrease in particle formation?

Well, a big part of it is reduced emissions in some countries, particularly the US, Europe and China.

And that that creates basically less aerosols or results in less aerosols in the air.

But that also means that there is going to be few what we call cloud condensation nuclei, or those small particles around which water vapour coalesce to form water droplets.

The good news is that there is less PM pollution in the air in those cities.

But there's also a flip side to that coin, which is that the the way that clouds forms and the properties of the cloud that are formed as a result are going to be different.

So these basically tell us that we need to keep monitoring this situation and see what effects these reduced particle formations can have on the way clouds form and in the way basically those clouds react with incoming solar and radiation, and therefore what attendant consequences that might have on climate change going forward.

So this is, in a nutshell, the stories that are featured in these years Air Quality and Climate Bulletin.

With that, I leave the floor to you and thank you very much.

Thank you.

Lorenzo.

Your heads are probably reeling from all those, all those details.

But if there are any questions, can you please just raise your hands?

And I see one from Agnes Pedro from the French news agency AFP.

Agnes.

And we can't hear you.

I can't hear.

I can't hear Agnes.

OK, Agnes will UNTV will try and sort it out.

Can we pass on to the next one, Paula Duprez, WS or Agnes?

If not, put it, put it in the chat and I'll see if we can answer it.

But to go on to Paula.

Can you hear me?

Yeah, yeah.

So thank you for all of that and thanks for taking my my question.

I guess one of the first questions that I would have is you had mentioned how there appeared to be a reduction in the amount of pollution in Europe and in in China, whereas in Southeast Asia it's it's it's increasing.

And I was just wondering where the US is positioned in that equation.

And then whilst I did get, you know, a few hints of some.

Solutions as to how to reduce the effects of PM on crops for instance.

I'm just wondering in the case of developing countries where you do have that, you know, that increase in in pollution, you know, what's how, how you would, you know, tackle some of the other issues.

I mean, I'm thinking of, you know, quite a few large cities in Latin America where it's the the pollution levels are just, you know, pretty much, you know, nearly as ****, I guess as, as, as what we've seen.

And that has been much more reported in, in Asia.

But yeah, what's what's sort of suggestions would you have to?

To.

Tackle that and are also is there not too much focus on the the biggest of the emitters China, US and so forth and perhaps less so on some of those countries that that are continuing to pollute and you know, emits?

Carbon, you know, increasingly need to clarify it's not just common.

Yeah, well, yes, I will start with the with the with your first question, which concerns the global PM particulate matter pollution story that we had at the beginning.

I, I mentioned that we saw negative anomalies in both Europe and China in a positive anomalies for an increase in emissions, particularly in the Indian subcontinents and parts of Southeast Asia.

You, you ask where the US was in that.

And if you look at figure one in the bulletin, I can describe it for you is that we see basically a status quo kind of situation with respect to the reference.

So we see a very slight negative anomaly or decrease in emissions in the Copernicus Atmospheric Services reanalysis and nearly no tendency at all in the GEOS IT in the Godard Earth Observing System reanalysis.

So that seems to indicate that in general the signal is is very weak.

So there's barely a change in particular matter emissions in 2023 with respect to the 22,000 and 3/20/22 reference.

OK.

Back to your second question, which was basically partly linked to the PM pollution on effect on crops.

It is a global problem.

So I just mentioned basically some of the PM hotspots around the world where you have a net decrease in crop yields due to particulate matter emissions.

It also happened that those places particularly the Asian, the Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent are PM hotspot.

So they are areas where very, very **** particulate matter concentrations as can also be noticed from the from the first story on particulate matter pollution around the world.

So you have a combination of many people living there together, a lot of agricultural practises going on at the same time and also **** levels of PM concentration.

So this is basically kind of the perfect storm for a noticeable effect on crop yields.

Now with respect to other countries, when when we're talking about the pollution here, we're talking, when we're talking air quality, we're talking about all type of air pollution.

So it's not only limited to particulate matter.

We're also talking about carbon emissions, we're talking about the aerosols, we're talking about ozone.

So we're talking about essentially a combination a deadly cocktail of emissions that come mostly from man made activities.

And well your particular question is what kind of advice would you give to say people in Latin American cities where air quality is, is really suffering as a result of emission there?

Well, the first thing that I could advise is basically find strategies to reduce emissions.

That is usually the first actionable measure that can be taken that is a step in the right direction.

It is easier said than done.

I, I acknowledge that.

I mean reducing emissions in a city like, I don't know, Sao Paulo or Santiago or Bogota, it's a lot easier said than done.

I mean that that basically goes by many different actions such as transitioning to more efficient vehicles or electric vehicles.

But then how does ACT plan for that?

It depends on the national budgets of the area.

But the first thing that cities have to do is to recognise that the problem exists in the 1st place.

So those cities and those countries have to acknowledge first that there is an air quality problem and there's sufficient data around the world to basically acknowledge that it is a worldwide problem, particularly in urban areas.

So what do you do?

Well, you have to reduce emissions.

How do you do that?

That will depend on the specifics of each country, the specific of each city, and what measures can be implemented by by the local government.

I hope that that answers your question.

Yeah.

And we'll take.

And one from Agnes Pedrero of AFP in the in the chat.

And then we'll go to Robin Millard of AFP.

You mentioned many stories in the bulletin.

I would ask you what is the main conclusion of this bulletin?

Short and sweet.

Wow.

Sorry.

The main message that we try to drive year on year with the bulletin is that air quality and climate change are linked, that one has to do a lot with the other, that many of the pollutants that cause climate change are also are emitted together with those pollutant that cause degradation in air quality.

So you cannot look at both as separate items.

So this basically is the message that encompasses and surrounds all the stories that we have here.

So what we have here in this polythene are different instances of this problem, be it by PM pollution on crops or being by big wildfires that are caused by partly by conditions that are exacerbated by climate change and that then caused a degradation inner quality.

So you can clearly see the link between the two in many of the stories here.

So these different stories have all one common element, and that is that climate change and air quality are strongly and inextricably linked.

I hope that answers your question.

I think so, yeah.

So the next question from Robin Millard, who's also with the French news agency AFP.

Robin, hi.

Thank you.

I just.

Wanted to ask in which countries or cities do you see?

The worst examples of.

Of bad air.

And in in.

Real terms, What is it like to be?

Living there and to.

Be breathing in.

The most polluted air on Earth.

What does that do to you?

Thank you.

That that's a very good question.

It it is not a simple answer.

I mean, as as I mentioned at the beginning of of this presentation, 9 out of 10 people in the world breathe air that is simply not fit for purpose.

And most of the human population are now living in urban areas.

So most people who live in cities, no matter which cities it, they're likely to be breathing air that is not fit for purpose and that is basically a contains level of pollutants that are well above WHO guidelines for a healthy living.

So I would say that most cities around the world would have that problem and I wouldn't think of course, the bigger the city, the more emissions that you have that are associated with traffic and industry, the worse the air quality is going to be.

But but most cities will have that problem to a lesser or bigger extent.

As to what kind of effects that have on you, there's a number of studies basically that that link poor air quality to premature death.

As I mentioned at the beginning, outdoor poor outdoor air quality is responsible for four and a half million premature deaths a year.

And that is basic because we inhale a cocktail of pollutants that basically have a series of negative consequences on the way we function as entities, arranging for cardiovascular disease to, to brain disease and others.

So that might cause obstruction of arteries, that might cause accumulation of toxic pollutants in your blood that might lead to degradation of health down the line.

I mean, I, I, I have heard that, for example, living in a mega city is equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes a day by the type of pollution that you ingest.

But there are many, many studies down there, and I cannot give you specifics that that outline what are the specific consequences of breathing these bad air that we have in most cities around the world.

And just to say the, the full bulletin, it's it, it is available on the link at the end of the press conference, press release that we sent you in the Trello board.

If you have problems accessing it to just just let me know.

In last year's bulletin, we did actually have a case study, I think it was from Sao Paulo, just on the effects of greening the city's, you know, planting, planting trees.

I don't know if you want to, I mean, that is a practical solution if you want to talk to that.

And then Robin has still still has his hand up.

Yeah.

Thank you, Claire, for reminding me of that.

Yes, Let's see your bulletin.

We had a piece on what is called a heat urban island effect, which is basically the the properties that urban environments have to increase the temperature as compared to greener surroundings in the suburbia and and and the countryside.

So it was basically realised that one strategy to mitigate the increased temperatures in city that amongst other things can lead to increase ozone episodes because temperature is 1 of the requirements that you need in order to have increased ozone, ground level ozone episodes.

It's to basically green the cities up to plant trees to basically increase the the green surfaces that you have in the way of parks that has measurable decreases in temperature and therefore a an impact on the air quality in those cities.

OK.

And back to Robin, is that still the same question or do you have a follow up Robin?

No, it's a different.

Question.

I just wanted to know.

If there was anything particularly innovative.

Going on out there.

In the world to to improve air quality beyond.

The things that you mentioned.

Like planting trees.

Like, very sort of futuristic.

Ideas.

That could perhaps improve.

The air quality that we're breathing.

I I'm not sure if a finding a a silver technological bullet to the problem of air quality would be the right approach.

The the scientific community is in complete agreement that reducing emissions is the step in the right direction and the first step that we have to take.

I doubt that will create a machine that will somehow vacuum the air and clean it up for us and basically exhale cleaner air.

On the other hand, on the other side, it would be fantastic if we have such a technology, but there's nothing that I'm aware that at this that at this moment works in that direction.

So I think it will be way, way easier to reduce emissions on a global scale than it would be to invest in technologies that would mitigate the problem, as opposed to just reducing emissions outright.

We WMO did a report a couple of months ago just saying that we're getting more low cost sensors now to improve measuring and especially that's sort of, you know, very localised things like, you know, areas of heavy traffic.

You weren't involved in that, but you probably know more about it than I do.

Yeah, Claire brings about a very good point.

In order to have a better assessment of the global picture related to air quality and climate change, we need as good measurements as we can.

The Global Atmosphere Watch of the World Meteorological Organisation has a comprehensive network of stations that basically take the pulse on air quality around the world, both at the urban level and also in what you call the background atmosphere in those places far away from the influence of emissions.

When you can have a better idea of what the global concentration of pollutants is after a long time.

So having the most comprehensive and better network of sensors around the world, we allow the scientific community to have a better idea of what the global air quality and atmospheric pollution situation is.

Local sensors are kind of the new kid on the block.

It is kind of the new technology that we have out there and that they have several things that seem to attract to be attractive, the low cost probably being one of them.

So they at this at this point in time, the scientific community is looking at the possibility of integrating or seeing if local sensors can be deployed and integrated to basically fill the gaps in those areas where a measurements are few and far between.

As of now, this technology is new enough that we do not think that they can replace or even complement the network of **** quality laboratory grade instruments that are used to measure concentrations of pollutants around the world.

Particularly since we time they tend to deviate and and basically the grade, the kind of measurements that they make.

So when we're talking about atmospheric pollution, we're talking about trends, which is the tendencies of certain pollutants over long periods of time.

Only at this point in time, laboratory grade instruments are capable of accurately measuring those trends over long periods of times.

Low cost sensors are not there, but for having snapshots, basically instantaneous pictures of what the situation might be, say in a city, they might be useful.

But at this point in time, we do not believe that they can complement, let alone to replace the kind of **** grade laboratory sensors that we deploy for the kind of measurements that we make.

Thanks very much.

I can't see any more questions on the platform.

So with that, thank you very much indeed for giving up your time on a Friday afternoon in in August.

As I said, you know we the the full bulletin is available on the trailer.

If you haven't got it, I can send it to you via e-mail and we will have the press release hopefully by Monday in all official languages.

So thanks very much and thank you to Lorenzo.

Thank you.

Bye bye.

Have a nice weekend and thank you to you NTV.