5⃣ things everyone needs to know about aviation and the climate – what science says.
The institute @ISAE_officiel has together with external experts summarised the scientific literature on aviation, its climate impact and ways forward: isae-supaero.fr/en/aviation-an…
@ISAE_officiel: "If we consider all the effects (CO2 and non-CO2), commercial aviation accounted for 5.1% of the climate impact over the 2000-2018. Period."
2⃣ Aviation's non-CO2 effects
@ISAE_officiel: "Specific strategies for the reduction of non-CO2 effects provide a major lever for limiting aviation’s climate impact. Due to the short lifetime of non-CO2 effects, these strategies can be effective quite quickly."
3⃣ Aviation's CO2 effects: limited technological opportunities
@ISAE_officiel: "incremental improvements are coming up against technological limits, while constraints of energy availability, production capacities and competition among uses risk reducing biofuel’s availability."
4⃣ Amount of traffic and aviation's share of the worldwide carbon budget
@ISAE_officiel: "if traffic grows at the rate foreseen by the aviation industry, it will consume a greater share of the carbon budget than its current share of emissions"
5⃣ Aviation's fossil fuel substitutes: uncertainties as to energy availability
@ISAE_officiel: "The decarbonization of aviation fuels could be limited by the availability of low-carbon energy resources. Their massive use could then lead to a shift in the environmental problem"
The EU has taken several decisions on air transport this week - and failed to bring it on track for 1.5 degrees.
We need pressure to get the EU to do more! #Thread 🧵 1/
June 24
🇪🇺 reveals new Alliance for Zero Emission Aviation to “make hydrogen-powered & electric aircraft a reality” – even the industry itself acknowledges: options won’t be viable until it's too late - 2035-40 at best - & will only fly a few hundred km stay-grounded.org/greenwashing/#… 2/
June 27- #Fitfor55 aviation package: Transport MEPs set impossible targets for using 85% fossil fuel substitutes #SAFs for ✈️ by 2050.
IATA targets for substituting even 5-10% fossil kerosene have NEVER been met since they started to set targets in 2008! europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-…
What are the injustices fuelled by our fossil-based mobility and economic system – and what does climate justice mean in this context?
A thread 🔽
1/🧵
The enormous global injustice of the climate crisis:
The countries of the Global North are responsible for 92% of climate-damaging emissions beyond the safe planetary limit of 350 ppm CO2. The Global South is responsible for just 8%, as a 2020 study by @jasonhickel has shown. 2/
#ClimateInjustice means (amongst other things) that communities that have contributed least to the climate crisis are already suffering most from its consequences. But #ClimateJustice must be much more than sharing efforts to reduce emissions and financing adaptation.
3/
The climate crisis and aviation‘s role 🌏🔥✈️
11 facts that will change your view on air traffic and its climate impact #CommonDestination#ReframeAviation
Before Covid, flying caused around 1 billion tonnes of CO2* per year.
That means if aviation were a country, it would be one of the largest single emitters, just behind Japan and ahead of countries like Germany and South Korea.
*Flights have additional climate impacts.
2/14
Flying regularly is not compatible with a 1.5 degree lifestyle.
Just one long-haul flight can emit more CO2 per passenger than what's feasible for staying below 1.5 degrees of global heating.
3/14
Biofuels are *theoretically* a feasible alternative to fossil jet fuel. But: they have countless negative side effects and their quantity will remain limited. #greenwashing
A thread on their problems and limits. 🔽🧵
Problem 1: biofuel use is severely constrained by the sustainability and availability of biomass
It is often claimed that aviation would use only second generation biofuels derived from 'waste' sources, therefore avoiding any direct or indirect sustainability impacts. Yet the use of first generation biofuels from crops and even entire trees has not been ruled out.
#Hydrogen is touted by some as THE great climate remedy.
Parts of the #aviation industry are also telling us that we will soon be flying on hydrogen.
Why this is not true - a thread. 🔽 🧵
The basics: in order to use hydrogen as a power source for aircraft instead of kerosene it could either be burned in a jet engine or used to feed a fuel cell to generate electricity to power a propeller.
Hydrogen is produced from other energy sources, has a significant energy loss during the process and is usually stored in liquid form at −253 °C.