{"id":777510,"date":"2026-09-21T05:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T05:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/777510\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T05:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T05:31:10","slug":"pollution-in-bristols-clean-air-zone-rises-for-the-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/777510\/","title":{"rendered":"Pollution in Bristol&#8217;s Clean Air Zone rises for the first time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">An increase in air pollution inside a clean air zone (CAZ) is down to the impact of weather, a local council has said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">New data has revealed that nitrogen dioxide levels rose on average by 2.4% inside Bristol&#8217;s CAZ in 2025 compared to the previous year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bristol City Council said the recent increase was down to weather factors, which was mirrored in other parts of the country. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Pollution levels have still fallen by 16% since charges on non-compliant vehicles were introduced in 2022, which the local authority said was &#8220;the most important measure of progress&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The council said that wind and rain can help clear pollution, but calm, still weather can trap nitrogen dioxide close to the ground, contributing to a perceived increase.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Enda Hayes, professor of air quality and carbon management at the University of the West of England (UWE), said one year of data should be interpreted &#8220;cautiously&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Low wind speeds, stable atmospheric conditions, and less dispersion can increase NO2 concentrations even when emissions remain unchanged or continue to fall,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It would be difficult to interpret such a modest change as evidence of a reversal in the longer-term trend, particularly when concentrations remain substantially below pre-CAZ levels.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An increase in air pollution inside a clean air zone (CAZ) is down to the impact of weather,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-777510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}