According to a relatively new application of the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of greenhouse gases, the non-CO2 impacts of aviation are warming the climate at a rate about three times higher than the sector’s CO2 emissions, says a report by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) commissioned by the European Commission and published on Monday 23 November.
“It confirms that carbon emissions are only the tip of the iceberg when accounting for aviation’s climate impact”, reacted Jo Dardenne, head of aviation for the NGO Transport & Environment (T&E).
These non-CO2 impacts of aviation on the climate from nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions, soot and sulphur particles, and water vapour have a positive net radiative forcing (i.e. their propensity to warm the planet) that accounts for more than half (66%) of aviation’s net forcing in 2018, the paper further points out.
However, unlike CO2 emissions, these factors are not covered by the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) due to scientific uncertainties in quantifying their impacts on the climate.
However, Article 30 of the revised ETS Directive (2018/410) obliged the Commission to present “ an updated analysis of the non-CO2 effects of aviation, accompanied, where appropriate, by a proposal on how best to address those effects”.
The report published on Monday analyses the possibility of a monetary charge on total NOx emissions over an entire flight, the inclusion of aircraft NOx emissions in the ETS, or the mandatory use of “sustainable” aviation fuels.
As the Commission presents its strategy for sustainable and intelligent mobility on 9 December, Greenpeace is calling on the EU to ban short-haul flights where a cleaner alternative exists, end “the unfair advantage provided by tax exemptions on airline tickets and fuel”, and increase European investment in cross-border rail.
See the report: https://bit.ly/2UWEq2l (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)