COVID-19 and Transboundary Air Pollution: Did Coronavirus Improve Air Quality in Taiwan?

新冠肺炎與跨境空氣污染－冠狀病毒改善了台灣的空氣品質嗎？

盧允芃(Yun-Peng Lu) ； 楊睿中(Jui-Chung Yang)

《經濟論文》 49卷4期 (2021/12) Pp. 495-526

摘要

We study Taiwan's air quality after the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in January 2020. We find a significant reduction, about 14.6%, in the daily PM_(2.5) concentration after the COVID-19 outbreak. Our paper controls for both year effects and time-of-year effects by comparing the average change over time in the PM_(2.5) levels before and after the outbreak of COVID-19 in the period from October 2019 to April 2020, to the average change over time from October to April in 2016/17, 2017/18, and 2018/19, and is robust to the policies and seasonal patterns in each year. Among the 14.6% decrease in PM_(2.5) concentration, we find that about 12.9 percentage points are related to the air quality improvement in China, Japan, and Korea and the reduction of transboundary air pollution.

關鍵字

Air quality in Taiwan ； COVID-19 ； PM_(2.5) ； Transboundary air pollution

並列摘要

我們研究2020年1月新冠肺炎爆發後台灣的空氣品質。我們發現在新冠肺炎爆發後，台灣各地PM_(2.5)的平均濃度顯著減少了14.6％。藉由比較2019年10月至2020年4月期間新冠肺炎爆發前後PM_(2.5)平均濃度的改變，以及2016/2017、2017/2018、2018/2019同期間前後PM_(2.5)平均濃度的改變，本文得以同時控制了年份及時間因素，也使得我們的發現不致於受到政策或季節因素影響。在14.6％的平均濃度減少中，我們發現約12.9個百分點的減少可能與中國大陸、日本、以及韓國的空氣品質改善，以及跨境空氣污染的減少有關。

並列關鍵字

台灣空氣品質 ； 新冠肺炎 ； PM_(2.5) ； 跨境空氣污染

參考文獻

Cheng, F. Y. and C. H. Hsu (2019), “Long-Term Variations in PM2.5 Concentrations under Changing Meteorological Conditions in Taiwan,” Scientific Reports, 9(1), Doi:10.1038/s41598-019-43104-x.

Donzelli, G., L. M. Cioni, A. L. Cancellieri, M. M. Morales, and M. M. M. Suarez-Varela (2020), “The Effect of the COVID-19 Lockdown on Air Quality in Three Italian Medium-Sized Cities,” Atmosphere, 11(10), Doi:10.3390/atmos11101118.

Hammer, M. S., A. van Donkelaar, R. V. Martin, E. E. McDuffie, A. Lyapustin, A. M. Sayer, N. C. Hsu, R. C. Levy, M. J. Garay, O. V. Kalashnikova, and R. A. Kahn (2021), “Effects of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Fine Particulate Matter Concentrations,” Science Advances, 7(26), Doi:10.1126/sciadv.abg7670.

Wang, Q. and M. Su (2020), “A Preliminary Assessment of the Impact of COVID-19 on Environment: A Case Study of China,” Science of the Total Environment, 728, Doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138915.

Adams, M. D. (2020), “Air Pollution in Ontario, Canada during the COVID-19 State of Emergency,” Science of the Total Environment, 742, 140516.