How significant is aviation, compared to other sources of CO2?
• Aviation produces around 2.5% of the world’s man-made carbon dioxide emissions. • Aviation produces around 3% of the EU’s, and around 6.5% of the UK’s. Because planes emit their waste gases at high altitude, there are greater effects from their pollution than the same gases would produce at ground level. (This phenomenon is called Radiative Forcing). The extent of this effect is still being researched, and there is no one agreed multiplier. Multiples between 1.7 and 4 are used. The UK government currently uses 2.7. Taking Radiative Forcing into account, which means multiplying the carbon dioxide by a factor of 2.7, means that: • Aviation produces around 6.5% of the world’s anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. • Aviation produces around 8% of the EU’s, and 17.5% for the UK’s anthropogenic carbon dioxide.
