Multiannual Emissions Comparison and Interpretation
CO, carbon monoxide, comes naturally from volcanoes and bushfires, but nowadays there are a lot more contributors to CO emissions.
One of the main sources of carbon monoxide emission is the burning of fossil fuels, so that means all of our means of transport, and basically anything that runs on fossil fuels contribute to air pollution.
While analysing the average value of CO emissions throughout the last 5 years, we have observed a significant improvement in 2020. The explanation for this is that when the Coronavirus had us all in lockdown, there were a lot less cars used, so there wasn’t almost any CO emitter to interfere with the balance of the atmosphere.
Then, as the restrictions were raised in 2021, the emissions started to increase abruptly up to the present moment.
SO2, sulfur dioxide, can be found in the atmosphere mainly because of the burning of fossil fuels by power plants and other industrial facilities, these being manmade sources.
By examining the graph showing the levels of SO2 emissions throughout the past 5 years, we have noticed an important decline since 2020.
This is mainly due to a so called “scrubber system”, or flue gas desulfurization. This method is based from a set of technologies that remove SO2 from exhaust flue gases of fossil-fuel power plants.
NO2, nitrogen dioxide, is a gas emitted, in general, by the burning of fuels, electricity generation, residential and industrial activities, an emitter of NO2 being also tobacco smoke and even unvented appliances.
Monthly Emissions Comparison (2018-2022)
