<
https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/31/23579475/aviation-emissions-cost-carbon-offsets-climate-change>
"With business continuing as usual, climate pollution from aviation could
nearly triple by 2050 as demand for air travel grows, according to a new study
published yesterday in the journal
Nature Sustainability. It would cost up to
$1 trillion to try to remove enough of that pollution from the atmosphere to
meet global climate goals — an untenable situation.
To put that enormous cost into context, the global airline industry only netted
$26.4 billion in profits in 2019 before the covid pandemic curbed travel. And
even if airlines can pay to remove all their emissions from the atmosphere,
that’s still not guaranteed to slow climate change. While carbon offsets —
paying to cancel out your climate pollution through green projects like
planting trees — are popular, they’re wildly unreliable.
A surefire way to cut down that pollution is to keep the aviation sector from
expanding as rapidly as it did for years before the covid pandemic. Keeping
growth in air travel demand nearly flat through 2050 could avoid more than 60
percent of those business-as-usual emissions, according to the new study.
Another 27 percent of emissions could be prevented through improved energy
efficiency. And deeper cuts will require developing less-polluting fuels.
The authors of the new study mapped out ways for aviation to reach net-zero
carbon dioxide emissions, a point when the industry no longer pumps out more
CO2 pollution than it can take out of the atmosphere. Back in 2021, the
International Air Transport Association set a goal of reaching net-zero
emissions globally by 2050. It’s a research-backed timeline that falls in line
with global climate goals under the Paris agreement."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
