Romania ranked 15th in the rankings of the most polluted countries in Europe in 2020, and the capital city of Bucharest ranked 51st in the world in this regard, in a hierarchy led by Delhi, India, reveal the latest data centralized in the global platform on air quality IQAir, informs Greenpeace Romania, in a release sent to AGERPRES on Tuesday.

According to statistics, last year, 84% of the monitored countries saw improvements in air quality, largely due to global measures to slow the spread of COVID-19. Thus, the improvements in air quality in 2020, compared to 2019, were seen in cities such as: Beijing (-11%), Chicago (-13%), Delhi (-15%), London (-16%), Paris ( -17%) and Seoul (-16%).

Worldwide, only 24 of the 106 countries monitored met the annual recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) for PM2.5 pollution, in 2020.

In Europe last year, about half of European cities exceeded the WHO recommendation on annual pollution by PM2.5, and the highest levels were recorded in South-Eastern Europe, with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Macedonia and Bulgaria topping the rankings. In this context, Romania ranked 15th in the rankings of the most polluted countries in Europe.

According to the quoted source, European cities are chronically polluted, 18% experiencing 50 or more days in which the daily objectives of the WHO are violated. Also, government monitoring and reporting of air quality in Europe is relative, so that while Northern and Western Europe have the densest air quality monitoring networks, with 818 cities covered, in Eastern and Southern Europe there are only 616 cities covered.

"In Romania, the authorities do not properly monitor PM 2.5 in urban areas. As a result of this lack of data, several independent measurement networks have emerged that bring valuable data to the public. In Bucharest, only one of the 6 official stations monitors fine dust and that is located on the outskirts of the city, on the shores of Morii Lake, so not very relevant," says Alin Tanase, Greenpeace Romania's campaigns coordinator.

The specialized report also contains the rankings of the most polluted capitals in the world, where Bucharest ranks 51st.

Against this background, the most polluted capital in the world is Delhi (India), and at the opposite end the cleanest air can be found in islands in the middle of the ocean, such as the Virgin Islands and New Zealand, or in the capital cities of the Nordic countries Sweden and Finland. AGERPRES (RO - author: Daniel Badea, editor: Oana Tilica; EN - author: Bogdan Gabaroi, editor: Adina Panaitescu)