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Fact Sheet: Environment
Industry Goals
- IATA’s goals are for:
- An average improvement in fuel efficiency of 1.5% per year to 2020
- A cap on net aviation CO2 emissions from 2020: carbon-neutral growth
- Reduce net CO2 emissions 50% by 2050 compared to 2005
Air Transport’s Environmental Track Record
- Air transport contributes 2% of global manmade CO2 emissions
- Projected to grow to 3% by 2050 (IPCC)
- Total climate change impact (including radiative forcing from other greenhouse gases) is 3%, and projected to grow to 5% by 2050 (IPCC)
- Air transport has reduced its fuel use and CO2 emissions per passenger kilometer by 70% compared to 1970s
- Total emissions for 2010 increased by 3.5% to 649 million tonnes CO2 (compared with 627million tonnes in 2009)
- Emissions growth of 3.5% in 2010 is the result of
- Increase of 5.2% due to capacity increase (33 million tonnes)
- Reduction of 1.7% from efficiencies (11 million tonnes)
IATA’s Four Pillar Strategy to Address Climate Change
1. Technology
- Short-term: enhancements and modifications to existing in-service fleet
- Medium-term: accelerate fleet renewal, introduce latest technologies, including drop-in biofuels
- Long-term: radical new technologies / designs.
- IATA Technology Roadmap identifies technologies that could reduce fuel burn per aircraft of up to 30%\
2. Operations
- Improved operations can save fuel and CO2 by up to 6% per year (IPCC)
- IATA helps fuel conservation by compiling best practices, publishing guidance, visiting airlines and training (via Green Teams).
- Green teams saved 22.5 million tonnes of CO2 since 2005 (saving $5.6 billion)
- Another 18.8 million tonnes of CO2 savings identified (saving $4.2 billion)
- IATA will extend fuel conservation programs and promote airline environmental management systems
3. Infrastructure
- Governments and infrastructure providers could eliminate up to 12% of CO2 emissions by addressing airport and airspace inefficiencies (IPCC)
- Some 4% of this has already been achieved since 1999 (CANSO)
- Single European Sky, US Next Gen Air Transport System and flexible airspace access would contribute to these savings
- IATA’s work with stakeholders have saved 37.3 million tonnes of CO2 since 2004 (saving $6.7 billion)
4. Economic measures
- First three pillars alone will not be enough to stop the growth in aviation’s carbon footprint. Smart economic measures are needed to bridge the gap
- Governments must take a global approach to reducing aviation emissions, not through a patchwork of individual policies:
- Carbon emissions to be centrally monitored to ensure emitters are held accountable just once for their emissions
- Avoid distortion and leakage
5. Savings from IATA’s Proactive Strategy for Fuel Efficiency
- Since 2004 IATA saved 78.6 million tonnes in CO2 emissions and $16.5 billion in fuel costs
- 22.5 million tonnes CO2 from operations implemented since 2005
- 18.8 million tonnes CO2 from operations identified since 2005
- 37.3 million tonnes CO2 infrastructure since 2004
- IATA’s direct infrastructure work in 2011
- 1 Continuous Descent Arrival
- 6 Flexible Use of Airspace
- 64 Performance Based Navigation
- 5 Flex Routings
- Saved 0.76 million tonnes CO2 and saved $ 243 million
- IATA Green Teams in 2011:
- Received 19 airline reports on fuel savings implementation
- 0.84 million tonnes of CO2 saved through implementation
- 0.76 million tonnes of CO2 savings identified
Updated: December 2011
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