Aircraft taking off from airports in the European Union should join the bloc's emissions trading scheme to cut greenhouse gases that damage the environment, the EU executive Commission proposed on Tuesday.
Here are some facts about the airline industry and its link to global warming:
- Some 16,000 commercial aircraft pump out 600 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year, consuming some 190 billion litres of jet fuel.
- Aviation causes 3.5 percent of man-made global warming, according to the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change. This could rise to 15 percent by 2050.
- Within Europe the aviation sector produces about 100 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. The European Union aims to halve carbon dioxide emissions from aircraft by 2020.
- Jet emissions include carbon dioxide, water vapour and nitrous oxides, at high altitude. Some experts say that flying is more damaging than driving as aircraft pollutants spewed high in the air enter the ozone layer straightaway.
- Jet fuel is not included in the Kyoto protocol on greenhouse gases because of difficulties in allocating emissions between countries.
- The International Air Transport Association (IATA), which groups most of the world's airlines, says aircraft fuel efficiency has improved by 17 percent between 1990 and 2000. It forecasts additional improvement of 10 percent by 2010, resulting in aircraft emissions falling by about 300 million tonnes.
Sources: Reuters; IATA ( www.iata.org ); US Energy Information Administration ( www.eia.doe.gov )
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