Airline Emissions in Europe

It seems like I'm not the only one talking about carbon emissions from air travel.  The New York Times reports today on the challenges of reducing emissions from low-cost airlines even as fuel prices rise.

The growth in emissions from air travel had “far exceeded growth by any other mode,” a European Environment Agency report issued this year said. Between 1990 and 2005, the last full year from which data were available, total carbon dioxide emissions from aviation in the European Union grew by 73 percent.

“This could threaten the ability of the E.U. to meet increasingly ambitious emission reduction targets,” the report’s authors said.

The European Low Fares Airline Association argues that low-cost airlines are a “green” alternative compared with conventional airlines, because low-cost airlines tend to have newer, more efficient fleets and their flights run nearly full, creating lower average emissions per passenger. But that does not take into account the huge growth in flying that they have created.

Read the whole thing.