The new lockdown has not had the same beneficial effect than the first lockdown on the air quality in Ile-de-France. According to a report released on November 10 by Airparif, the organization controlling the air quality in Ile-de-France, the nitrogen oxides levels (NOx) and fine particles PM10 (below 10 micrometer of diameter) have only decreased by 20% since the new lockdown started on October 30. A far smaller drop that during the first lockdown during which the air pollution plunged.
Same call for greenhouse gas emissions: they decreased by 20% since the new lockdown started, while during the first quarantine, carbon dioxide levels (CO2) related to the automobile traffic dropped by 70%, a historically-low level. A trend explained by a lockdown far less severe than the spring lockdown.
“This second lockdown is not as strict as the spring’s, schools remaining open and some trips for professional reasons being allowed” Airparif says. Thus, during the first lockdown, remote working was the rule for some or partial unemployment for others deeply impacted and decreased the road traffic in Paris and Ile-de-France, and rates notices by the main roads were similar to the concentrations in parks and gardens from the first weeks of the first lockdown.
But with this new lockdown, the streets of Paris are not as empty, and roads are still taken by many people.
