Consider this: Flying round trip from Lisbon to New York emits approximately the same amount of greenhouse gasses as heating a home in the EU for an entire year, according to EU data. Aviation stands as one of the rapidly expanding contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. In the EU, direct emissions from aviation represented 3.8% of total CO2 emissions in 2017. Within the transport sector, aviation accounts for 13.9% of emissions, making it the second largest source after road transport. Global aviation, if considered as a single entity, would rank among the top 10 emitters worldwide. To address this, the EU is implementing measures to reduce aviation emissions regionally and collaborating internationally to develop solutions with global impact.
These are the facts. So, how can we contribute to sustainable aviation? Gerardo Zampino, a Postdoctoral Researcher from our RefMap project coordinator, KTH Royal Institute of Technology puts it this way, “I believe that a new concept of aviation is possible that minimises its effects on human health and the environment. While we may not be able to stop flying, we can change the way we fly''. He, along with all our partners in the RefMap project took part in our social media campaign entitled “Why I Care”, where they expressed their concerns and the way we can address the problem of today’s non-environmental friendly aviation. What can we do in practical terms? Some answers are the use of high-performance computing and accelerated AI, sustainable aviation fuels, aircraft emissions mitigation, predictive models for UAVs’ noise, optimisation of airplane trajectories, and more.
We invite you to follow our social media campaign “Why I Care” on Linkedin and X (Twitter) to learn more about how we can change aviation.
Read more about RefMap’s partners' work in our Sustainable Aviation Plan here.
Thank you!