“What is happening in the last week with the air in Kyiv, is there anything extraordinary about it and how is it related to the war?”, — write: www.epravda.com.ua
Kyivans are used to the fact that their city sometimes leads the world rankings of the most polluted air, ahead of Bangladesh, India and China. In 2024, the situation repeated itself.
About half a hundred measuring stations in the capital constantly record the level of PM2.5 air pollution. These are small solid particles that can penetrate the lungs and harm health. According to the publication Textythis year’s smog in Kyiv has several different sources, including traditional ones for autumn and new ones.
September 15 station recorded fires on peatlands around the capital. Another fire broke out on September 19 near the village of Loshakova Huta, north of Kyiv, where forest and peat burned. Satellite images showed how the wind carried the smoke towards the city.
Another factor was added to the usual problems: air pollution from fires as a result of shelling by the Russian army. Fires on the northern border of Ukraine recorded on September 20 created a smoke screen that extended to Kyiv.
To answer the question of whether this year’s conditions are abnormal, the EP analyzed open data available on the data.gov.ua portal regarding the concentration and atmospheric air quality index according to the NowCast formula (US EPA) for the main air pollutant – fine dust fraction 2.5 micron
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Why does this happen? The main, albeit unexpected, factor in the improvement of air quality is the great war. Fires are only one source of pollution. PM2.5 is also produced by emissions from transport, industry and power generation, particularly coal-fired power plants.
Since 2022, Ukraine has suffered significant losses in these areas due to the war. The country’s gross domestic product fell by a third in the first year of the Great War and still has not returned to pre-war levels, and electricity production declined.
Ukraine lost about 9 GW of capacity – half of the country’s energy system. This is equivalent to the energy consumption of the Netherlands for three months or the combined consumption of Slovakia and the Baltic states. Most of the lost capacity is due to environmentally harmful coal-fired power plants.
Burns, but does not burn. Why have fires decreased in Ukraine due to drought?
The decrease in production in Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro and other industrial regions had a positive impact on the environment. According to 2024 data, the level of PM2.5 pollution in these cities has almost halved compared to 2019-2021.
However, the biggest environmental changes occurred in Kharkiv, where all energy generation ceased due to large-scale destruction of infrastructure.
As a result, the percentage of time with clean air (PM2.5 less than 50) in the city increased from 65% to 95%. In Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro, the share of such hours per year rose from 50-60% to 75-85%.
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In Kyiv, the decrease in the level of air pollution in 2023-2024 turned out to be less drastic. This is due to a lower concentration of factories and a stronger human factor: automobile emissions remain the main source of pollution, and the population came back to the pre-war level in 2023. Nevertheless, the number of hours with clean air also increased: from 60% in 2021 to 80% in 2024.
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Methodology. Historical dataposted by the SaveEcoBot initiative, taken from the data.gov.ua portal. These are hourly concentrations and indices of air quality according to the NowCast formula (US EPA) for the main air pollutant – fine dust of the 2.5 micron fraction (AQI PM2.5) in populated areas of Ukraine.
Primary indicators of atmospheric air quality are measured by monitoring stations installed by residents of settlements, independent projects, organizations, and local self-government bodies.
SaveEcoBot collects these readings, calculates an hourly arithmetic mean for PM2.5, and calculates the NowCast (US EPA) PM2.5 AQI for each station. After that, the corresponding arithmetic mean value of PM2.5 and AQI PM2.5 are calculated for the settlements, respectively.
AQI scale for PM2.5 (EPA): 0-50 – good air quality, 51-100 – moderate, 101-150 – unsatisfactory for sensitive groups, 151-200 – unsatisfactory, 201-300 – very poor, 301-500 – dangerous