Environmental impact of aviation

Common card · No. 456207

Aircraft engines produce gases, noise, and particulates from fossil fuel combustion, raising environmental concerns over both global impacts and their effects on local air quality. Jet airliners contribute to climate change via their exhaust, which contains carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides, and particulates, and which can lead to the formation of contrails under certain atmospheric conditions. Excluding the effect of contrail-induced cirrus clouds (which is not accurately quantified), the radiative forcing of jet exhaust is estimated at 1.3–1.4 times that of CO2 alone. In 2018, global commercial operations generated 2.4% of all CO2 emissions. Jet airliners became about 70% more fuel efficient between 1967 and 2007, and CO2 emissions per revenue ton-kilometer (RTK) in 2018 were 47% of those in 1990. In 2018, CO2 emissions averaged 88 grams of CO2 per revenue passenger per km. While the aviation industry is more fuel efficient, overall emissions have risen as the volume of air travel...

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