On Tuesday 14 January, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the European Commission presented the fourth edition of the European Aviation Environmental Report. This is a comprehensive review of the aviation sector’s environmental performance and progress that has been made since the previous edition in 2022. The report proposes recommendations for reducing the impact of aviation on climate change, noise and air quality.
It recommends focusing on measures such as increasing the use of sustainable aviation fuels, optimising air traffic management and adopting technologies that are more fuel-efficient. Implementing these measures would reduce emissions by at least two-thirds by 2050 compared to a scenario where the status quo is maintained. Nevertheless, air traffic is expected to increase to 11.8 million annual flights by that stage.
With regard to CO2 emissions, the aim is to decouple the growth of the sector and its activities from its emissions, essentially by way of three main methods. Firstly, there is the increase in the proportion of sustainable fuels, with the introduction of the ‘RefuelEU Aviation’ regulation on the deployment of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which came into force on 1 January, requiring an increasing amount of sustainable fuels to be blended with paraffin (see EUROPE 13548/24). Secondly, it involves a renewal of the air fleet through the EU’s Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking research and innovation programme, the aim of which is to transform aviation into a sustainable, climate-neutral sector. Thirdly, the EASA and the European Commission want to improve the efficiency of air navigation operations, which could reduce actual emissions by a further 10%.
For non-CO2 emissions, the EASA and the European Commission recommend strengthening the cohesion of research looking at the effect of aviation emissions on the climate. The aim is to improve scientific understanding and develop decision-making tools that take account of uncertainties and enable a risk-based assessment to be made. The aim would be to ensure that preventive measures lead to a net reduction in the climate impact of CO2 and non-CO2 emissions.
In addition, 1% of Europe’s population is affected by aircraft noise. This is a major problem, particularly in some main urban centres. The report gives an overview of discussions that are underway – particularly in the Netherlands – to introduce measures to reduce noise exposure. Improvements to the European regulation on the Balanced Approach to aircraft noise management around airports should therefore be considered in order to facilitate a consistent implementation between Member States, to speed up compliance, and to ensure that operational restrictions are only applied after other elements of the balanced approach have been considered.
Finally, in order to improve air quality, EASA and the European Commission recommend identifying ways of optimising the composition of fossil fuels and sustainable fuels, for example by modifying fuel standards, so that any impacts can be minimised.
Read the report: https://aeur.eu/f/f1f (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)