European primary emissions of criteria pollutants and greenhouse gases in 2020 modulated by the COVID-19 pandemic disruptions

We present a European dataset of daily sector-, pollutant- and country-dependent emission adjustment factors associated with the COVID-19 mobility restrictions for the year 2020. We considered metrics traditionally used to estimate emissions, such as energy statistics or traffic counts, as well as information derived from new mobility indicators and machine learning techniques. The resulting dataset covers a total of nine emission sectors, including road transport, the energy industry, the manufacturing industry, residential and commercial combustion, aviation, shipping, off-road transport, use of solvents, and fugitive emissions from transportation and distribution of fossil fuels. The dataset was produced to be combined with the Copernicus CAMS-REG_v5.1 2020 business-as-usual (BAU) inventory, which provides high-resolution (0.1 degrees x 0.05 degrees) emission estimates for 2020 omitting the impact of the COVID-19 restrictions. The combination of both datasets allows quantifying spatially and temporally resolved reductions in primary emissions from both criteria pollutants (NOx, SO2, non-methane volatile organic compounds - NMVOCs, NH3, CO, PM10 and PM2.5) and greenhouse gases (CO2 fossil fuel, CO2 biofuel and CH4), as well as assessing the contribution of each emission sector and European country to the overall emission changes. Estimated overall emission changes in 2020 relative to BAU emissions were as follows: -10.5% for NOx (-602 kt), -7.8% (-260.2 Mt) for CO2 from fossil fuels, -4.7% (-808.5 kt) for CO, -4.6% (-80 kt) for SO2, -3.3% (-19.1 Mt) for CO2 from biofuels, -3.0% (-56.3 kt) for PM10, -2.5% (-173.3 kt) for NMVOCs, -2.1% (-24.3 kt) for PM2.5, -0.9% (-156.1 kt) for CH4 and -0.2% (-8.6 kt) for NH3. The most pronounced drop in emissions occurred in April (up to -32.8% on average for NOx) when mobility restrictions were at their maxima. The emission reductions during the second epidemic wave between October and December were 3 to 4 times lower than those occurred during the spring lockdown, as mobility restrictions were generally softer (e.g. curfews, limited social gatherings). Italy, France, Spain, the United Kingdom and Germany were, together, the largest contributors to the total EU27 + UK (27 member states of the European Union and the UK) absolute emission decreases. At the sectoral level, the largest emission declines were found for aviation (-51% to -56 %), followed by road transport (-15.5% to -18.8 %), the latter being the main driver of the estimated reductions for the majority of pollutants. The collection of COVID-19 emission adjustment factors (https://doi.org/10.24380/k966-3957, Guevara et al., 2022) and the CAMS-REG_v5.1 2020 BAU gridded inventory (https://doi.org/10.24380/eptm-kn40, Kuenen et al., 2022b) have been produced in support of air quality modelling studies.

Automated summary

This article presents a European dataset of daily emission adjustment factors associated with COVID-19 mobility restrictions for the year 2020. It covers nine emission sectors and is intended to be combined with a high-resolution 2020 business-as-usual inventory to quantify spatially and temporally resolved emission reductions.