A plane taking off from the airport of Malaga in Spain. – Martin Dalton // SIPA
Between January and November 2020, the emissions of CO2 produced by air transport decreased by 55, 7% when the traffic plunged from 52%, announced Monday Eurocontrol, the European air traffic monitoring body. The latter dropped from 54% over the whole year with 5 million flights departing or arriving at a European airport, against , 1 million in 2019.
The fall is general, more marked in countries like Croatia (- 73, 3%) or the Czech Republic (- 70, 6%), that in the Netherlands (- 30, 7%) or in Belgium (- 24, 6%). In Germany, emissions from air traffic have fallen by 41, 4%, in France of 54, 5%, in the UK of 59, 4% and in Italy of 64, 4%.
Collapse of long-haul traffic
The slightly more pronounced drop in emissions compared to traffic can be explained in particular by an absence of congestion in the European sky since the pandemic, allowing more direct flight paths and fewer holding circuits above airports. It is also due to the collapse of long-haul traffic, which is even more affected than domestic or continental flights. However, these emit the most CO2.
In general, the longer the flight the more it contributes to emissions, notes Eurocontrol, relying on data from 2019. That year, thefts of more than 1. 310 km represented 24% of flights departing from a European country and 73% of CO2 emissions, when flights less than 310 km represented 20% of traffic and less than 4% of emissions.
Fleet pinned to the ground
With part of their fleet grounded, airlines have also favored the most recent and fuel-efficient aircraft, therefore more profitable and emitting less CO2. At the end 2019, 4. 118 aircraft of the various European airlines, i.e. 51 % of the fleet, remained anchored to the ground, according to Eurocontrol.
Aviation accounts for between 2 and 3% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, according to the Organization of International Civil Aviation (ICAO) , which this year is setting up the pilot phase of its global compensation for CO2 emissions (Corsia) in order to control the sector’s emissions. 20210104