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COP21 Aircraft Greenhouse Gas Omission Addressed by 23 Countries

February 9, 2016

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February 9, 2016 – At the Paris climate talks greenhouse gas emissions from ships and airplanes were discussed but there was no final agreement on a cap. Now 23 countries including the United States have agreed to standards for the reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for the first time for the latter of the two transportation categories. The agreement announced on February 8th in Montreal, was under the auspices of the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency.

Why is curtailing airplane emissions so important?

Because of where the emissions occur. A significant portion of the airplane emissions happen at high altitude. These emissions include more than CO2 including nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur oxides, water and soot. The NO and NO2 emissions impact ozone both positively and negatively. At lower altitudes ozone levels increase and at higher elevations they decline. Soot destroys ozone as well. There also appears to be a correlation between flight density and condensation trails (contrails) and upper atmosphere cloud formation. The association of cirrus clouds and airplanes is said to contribute to 3.5% of another measure of climate change, the radiative forcing (RF) or climate forcing brought on by human activity. Positive RF is a contributor to global warming as greenhouse gases like water vapour and CO2 absorb infrared radiation and emit it into the atmosphere. And then there is CO2 emissions, which have been steadily increasing since the first comprehensive analysis done back in the 1990s. At that time aviation was estimated to produce 1% of all anthropogenic carbon emissions. But increases in air traffic since the 1990s has increased CO2 emissions by 3 to 4% per year with an estimated growth of 400% by 2040. That’s why an agreement was very much needed.

Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, President of the ICAO Council, described the environmental measure unanimously recommended by 170 international experts convened by the United Nations 36-state Governing Council, stating, “the goal of this process is ultimately to ensure that when the next generation of aircraft types enter service, there will be guaranteed reductions in international CO₂ emissions.” He further stated that by enacting such measures, “the projected doubling of global passengers and flights by 2030” can “be managed responsibly and sustainably.”

The new CO₂ emissions standard are applicable to all new aircraft designs as of 2020 as well as new deliveries of current in-production aircraft types. There is a cutoff date of 2028 for production of aircraft that are not compliant with the standard.

The global standard is aimed at larger aircraft weighing 60 tons or more because these account for 90% of emissions.

Now we need to see similar movement from the International Maritime Organization (IMO), also an agency of the United Nations and consisting of 167 member states. Currently the last agreement related to pollution from ships, MARPOL, was amended in 2011 to introduce mandatory greenhouse gas emissions. But for some reason updates to MARPOL were not part of COP21. This needs to happen soon.

Why?

Because 90% of world trade happens on the world’s oceans. And because the large majority of ships use heavy unrefined bunker fuels that are the dirtiest energy sources on the planet. Based on health studies, the particulate matter emitted by 90,000 marine vessels plying our oceans contributes to 60,000 cardiopulmonary and lung cancer deaths annually as well as 3% of all human-produced CO2 emissions. That’s almost twice the amount of global greenhouse gas emissions contributed by Canada annually including emissions from the oil sands. In fact, marine shipping, if it were a country, would be the sixth largest contributor of global greenhouse gas emissions. So if you want to influence your country’s policy on climate change then getting it to act on the issue of marine pollution would be a great cause.