More than half of European cities are still plagued by dirty air, new data shows, despite a reduction in traffic emissions and other pollutants during last year’s lockdowns.
Cities in eastern Europe, where coal is still a major source of energy, fared worst of all, with Nowy Sacz in Poland having the most polluted air, followed by Cremona in Italy where industry and geography tend to concentrate air pollution, and Slavonski Brod in Croatia.
The three cleanest cities were Umea in Sweden, Tampere in Finland and Funchal in Portugal.
The European Environment Agency (EEA) took data from 323 cities in 2019 and 2020 and found that in only 127 of these, or about 40%, levels of fine particulate matter known as PM 2.5 were below World Health Organization recommended limits. Fine particulate matter has the biggest health impact of the main sources of air pollution and causes more than 400,000 premature deaths a year across Europe.