Emissions to track 45% traffic rise: European Environment Agency

European aviation emissions are set to rise by almost half over the next 20 years, warns the European Environment Agency (EEA).

The projected 45% and 43% increases in CO₂ and NO_X emissions are based on the number of annual flights rising from 8.9 million today to 12.8 million by 2035.

By comparison, the last 20 years have brought an 80% expansion in both European flights and CO₂ emissions.

Yet most of that growth took place before 2005, after which airline CO₂ emissions stabilised in Europe.

The EEA attributes this to improved technology, retirement of older aircraft, and better operational practices at airlines.

"However, projections indicate that future technology improvements are unlikely to balance the effect of future traffic growth," the agency says.

Source: Cirium Dashboard