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Climate Impacts of Aviation and the Potential of Aviation Powerfuels Toward Their Mitigation
Publikationstyp
Book part
Date Issued
2025
Sprache
English
Volume
Part F3771
Start Page
879
End Page
904
Citation
In: Powerfuels : Status and Prospects / edited by Nils Bullerdiek, Ulf Neuling, Martin Kaltschmitt. - 1st ed. 2025. - Cham : Springer Nature Switzerland ; Cham : Imprint: Springer, 2025
Publisher DOI
Scopus ID
Publisher
Springer
ISSN
18653529
ISBN
978-3-031-62411-7
The UN Conference of the Parties, representing nearly all UN member states, agreed in the Paris Agreement to “hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels”. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) have set a “Net-Zero Carbon Emissions” target by 2050. While the Paris Agreement focuses on limiting global temperature increase, the aviation industry targets primarily address CO2 emissions. However, aviation’s climate impact extends beyond CO2 to contrails and indirect effects of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. Research shows that only one-third of aviation’s climate impact (in terms of effective radiative forcing, ERF) is due to CO2, with the remaining two-thirds from the other non-CO2-related cliamte impacts. The largest climate impacts of aviation, by magnitude, are contrails, CO2 emissions, and NOx effects. Addressing only CO2 emissions would overlook a significant portion of aviation’s climate impact, making it essential to consider all related climate factors to align aviation industry targets with the Paris Agreement. This chapter first describes aviation’s climate effects and then explores how increased use of powerfuels as example for renewably sourced kerosene might influence its overall climate impact.
Subjects
Aerosol Effects | Aviation Climate Impact | Contrails | Nitrogen Oxide | Non-CO Effects 2
DDC Class
660: Chemistry; Chemical Engineering
624: Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering