100% "Green" Airlines: Is it Feasible?

 Recently, when I was on a United Airlines flight, the airline promoted its new initiative of "...becoming 100% green by reducing [its] greenhouse gas emissions 100% by 2050." Previously, their goal was to reduce emissions by 50% by 2050. On first thought, this sounds amazing, as such a prominent airline is promoting environmental sustainability! However, upon further inspection, I became a bit skeptical of how the airline would actually meet this lofty pledge. I decided to look into some crucial points that could define whether or not this is a reasonable and feasible goal!

To start, according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI), 2.4 billion passengers fly each year, and flying is the method of transport producing the most emissions per individual. The aviation industry alone makes up 2.4% of the world's emissions, and according to the EPA, in the US, airplanes contribute 3% of total and 12% of transportation emissions. Globally, the industry singlehandedly makes up 5% of all the factors raising global temperatures. 

What makes aviation, in particular, such a massive contributor to climate change? The first thing that comes to mind is CO2 emissions from jet fuel, which make up 70% of the exhaust, according to EESI. Though it is less noticeable thousands of feet up in the air, these CO2 emissions mixing into the atmosphere have the same effect as the emissions on the ground from transportation or factories. In fact, because these emissions are occurring so high up, they have such an amplified impact on the climate, as emissions trigger damaging chemical reactions that lock in the planet's heat. Most of the CO2 remains trapped in the atmosphere for hundreds if not thousands of years. 

In hopes of combating these adverse effects, the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) was created by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The plan gives airlines more flexible options in how they choose to reduce their CO2 emissions. According to the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), these include flying more energy-efficient planes, using new technologies to set more efficient flight paths, reducing delays, using sustainable lower-carbon alternative fuels, and investing in emissions offsets within or outside of the aviation sector. The EDF also states that if CORSIA is implemented, it could block about 2.5 billion tons of CO2 emissions over just the first 15 years.

Furthermore, those cool-looking contrails airplanes leave behind in the sky are also a huge environmental problem. These artificial clouds form when water droplets from the exhaust freeze into tiny crystals. They hold on to heat, infrared rays, and emissions from the surface, creating almost a mirror-like effect. The heat coming from the surface is locked in and not allowed to escape, thereby reflecting and increasing temperatures on the ground. The EESI says that this effect creates a warming effect that is up to three times more potent than CO2.

Airline flying is going up five percent a year, but efficiency improvements have only increased by one to two percent, according to the David Suzuki Foundation. On top of this, as the world remerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, flying, accompanied by its harmful effects, will only increase. The non-CO2 impacts of aviation have scientists and climate experts most worried, as they are not directly accounted for by the ICAO's CO2-centered CORSIA plan. New research from the University of Birmingham indicates that it is the non-CO2 effects of aviation that will continue to make up much of the industry's impact on the climate. The researchers believe that even though more well-known methods to reduce climate impact, such as alternative fuels, may be implemented, the overlooked non-CO2 effects, like contrails, may end up having a significant effect.

Ultimately, even if United Airlines were to become 100% green, a goal based on existing information seems unlikely, it would take a massive global effort to truly mitigate the climate impacts of aviation. However, a major national and internationally operating airline like United Airlines could inspire a wave of other airlines worldwide to create similar initiatives, which could collectively have a positive impact!



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