Roland Leigh, WCRAQ’s Chair of Air Monitoring, appeared on Channel 4’s Dispatches documentary, Coronavirus: How Britain is Changing. As Technical Director of EarthSense, he discussed how COVID-19 has caused a change in air quality and what this means for the future of Britain.
Leigh outlined how it took just a matter of days to see dramatic reductions in air pollution levels as lockdowns were implemented across the world. For example, the UK similarly saw a 25% decrease within a week of lockdown being implemented.
These recent changes have given Britain a taste of what a cleaner future could look like. On average, the World Health Organisation estimates that pollution affects 9 out of 10 people and causes 7 million deaths each year. Lockdown has shown how reducing carbon emissions benefits our climate. Since the reduction of traffic, health issues caused by air pollution have been highlighted.
Leigh went on to highlight that environmental issues increasingly need to be addressed in political parties. ‘Our political systems need to be aware of how much as a community we value the health of our environment.
‘We need to make sure that we are telling our politicians and our parties that incentives to improve our long-term climate credentials will mean that they get our support. Political parties that ignore environmental conditions need to know that they will not be voted for at the next election.’
Going forward, as commuters return to the roads following lockdown, the Westminster Commission for Road Air Quality maintains that there must be adequate air quality monitoring systems in place. The country would be better equipped to plan efficient policies with accurate information.
WCRAQ is working with its OWL and CMS SupaTrak partnerships to use telematics technology on refuse collection vehicles. Read more about our ‘roadmap’ initiative here…
