The study suggests that emissions produced by the aviation industry must be reduced every year if the sector’s emissions are not to aggravate warming further.
Aviation is widely recognised as a hard to abate sector, along with shipping, construction and steelmaking. Although research efforts are underway to develop sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs), hydrogen-powered aircraft and electric aircraft, these all remain in early stages and it is highly unlikely that the sector will be able to reduce emissions as quickly as other sectors. The study set out to inform the discussion about aviation’s 'fair share' of future warming.
Researchers from the University of Oxford, Manchester Metropolitan University and the NERC National Centre for Earth Observation developed a simple technique for quantifying the temperature contribution of historic aviation emissions, including both CO2 and non-CO2 impacts. It also forecasts future warming due to the sector,...