The subdued transportation and industrial activity resulting from lockdowns during the pandemic generally reduced global pollution, but also created atmospheric conditions that whipped up unusually high levels of dust across the Arabian Peninsula.

Diana Francis, of Khalifa University of Science and Technology in the United Arab Emirates, was first alerted to this surprising effect while looking at research performed in early 2020 into changes in global emissions and pollution . That data showed clear evidence of reduced carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and oceans, but also indicated that the impact of the lockdowns was not universally positive from an air quality perspective. “I looked at the satellite imagery and saw very active dust emissions, especially over Iraq, Kuwait and northeast Saudi Arabia,” she says. 

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When governments introduced stay-home measures in early 2020 in response to the , air pollution fell, in general, thanks to reduced traffic and the closure of industrial plants.

The UAE itself enjoyed a significant drop in  between February and April of that year, figures published by the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment showed, due to the scaled-down activities.

However, a new study by scientists in the Emirates has found that, against expectations, concentrations of tiny particulate matter in the air in eastern Arabia, including the UAE, increased during this time.

The study reports that from March to June 2020, the level of particulate matter (PM) in eastern Arabia was 30 per cent higher than the average seen from 2016 to 2019.

The increases in particulate matter were “indeed a surprising finding”, said the study’s first author, Dr Diana Francis, who heads the Environmental and Geophysical Sciences (ENGEOS) Laboratory at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi.

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Middle Eastern governments must do more to tackle air pollution, experts say, with fuel subsidies and poor public transport the cause of poor air quality in many major cities.

Air pollution is a major health hazard across the globe, with the World Health Organisation stating that in 2019, 99 per cent of the world’s population lived in places where the institution’s air quality guidelines were not met.

Vehicles and dust major sources of pollution

As is the case elsewhere in the Gulf, road vehicles remain a significant source of pollution in the UAE, with more than three million vehicles using the country’s roads despite heavy investments in public transport, such as the Dubai Metro.

Aside from vehicle emissions, other major sources of PM2.5 in the Middle East include power plants, various industrial facilities and sand storms, the last of which may be affected by climate change, although current evidence is unclear.

Dr Diana Francis, a senior research scientist and head of the Environmental and Geophysical Sciences laboratory at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, says that from between about 2000 and 2010, dust emissions increased, but then fell back the following decade.

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