Air traffic Global air traffic clearly misses climate targets according to study

According to a study, global passenger air traffic has clearly missed its climate targets. Although the levers are known, they have so far been used very little for various reasons, as the environmental organization Atmosfair points out.

The international passenger airlines in 2023 had only improved their CO2 efficiency by just under 6 percent compared to the pre-corona year 2019, which corresponds to around 1.4 percent annually. This is shown by the airline ranking presented by Atmosfair at the climate conference in Baku.

However, with air traffic continuing to grow, 4.0 percent is needed each year to achieve the climate targets agreed in Paris, according to Atmosfair. Even the climate targets of the civil aviation organization ICAO of 2.0 percent per year, which the environmental organization considers insufficient, have not been achieved.

Old fleets lagging behind

Airlines with a comparatively old fleet fell behind in the ranking. "The climate turnaround in aviation is a long time coming," says Atmosfair Managing Director Dietrich Brockhagen. "Our figures show that the sector is simply too slow when it comes to climate protection." The absolute CO2 emissions of passenger air traffic are still around 10 percent lower than in 2019, mainly due to the lower volume of flights.

Sustainably produced fuels have hardly been used to date. In addition, airlines have made little progress in modernizing their fleets, even though modern engines can reduce kerosene consumption by up to 30 percent. This is due to delivery problems at the two dominant manufacturers Boeing and Airbus.

SDA