Curbing Carbon in Aviation

It is no surprise, with the constant growth of the aviation industry, that airplane carbon emission has become a large concern as of late. Greenhouse gas pollution is always a significant environmental concern, and it turns out the aviation industry has become the fastest growing source of it. Therefore, the industry has been in negotiations with the United Nations for six years about how to tackle their worrisome carbon output. On Monday, February 7, they finally, reached an agreement on their first carbon dioxide emission limit.

With the recent international climate change conferences, the aviation industry came into the spotlight as a serious issue. It had not been a part of any climate change talks until after the Paris Agreement was reached. It was then that officials realized they could be doing more to address climate change by addressing an industry that constantly emits carbon dioxide. The limits are not, however, addressing the current carbon dioxide emissions. They are addressing the projected emissions by the aviation industry as the years go on. As it continues to grow, the industry’s emissions will most likely triple, which could harm the environment even further.

The new limits on carbon dioxide emission were actually announced in Montreal, and are expected to be put fully into effect by the year 2028. There are many who believe that the new rules are not harsh enough, however. While it is an important first step in further lowering humanity’s carbon emissions, the new rules were watched over carefully by the airline industry. In a six year negotiation, it makes sense that airline officials had a lot of say in what the new rules entail.

I do believe that the rules are too lax, as they do not even include current aviation vehicles, however this is a huge step in environmental protection. With vehicle technology continuing to grow, we have imposed limits on devices like cars and trucks in terms of how much carbon they are able to emit, and the same regulations should be in place for aircrafts, especially considering the rapid growth of the industry.

The new limits include a small reduction of the percentage of fuel each aircraft can consume, and will specifically target aircrafts in production. This will theoretically cut carbon emissions by hundreds of millions of metric tons in the span of 20 years. Of course, this is just the first step in what will be a long battle to reduce carbon emission from aircrafts, but it is a step in the right direction. Hopefully this will lead to further environmental regulations in the aviation industry, which will have a large impact on humanity’s quality of life in the future.