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Carbon emissions from European flights fell by 57 per cent last year compared to 2019, says Eurocontrol

01/02/2021



According to data compiled by Europe’s air navigation agency Eurocontrol, the exceptional decline in 2020 air traffic due to the Covid pandemic travel restrictions led to an overall fall in CO2 emissions from flights across Europe of 56.9% last year compared to 2019. Using the global standard of assigning CO2 emissions to the country of departure, the decline was a similar 54.5%. The data shows a considerable variation between countries in their CO2 reductions, which was driven by differences in the local fleet (lighter or heavier, younger or older aircraft), flight distances (short or long haul), mix of market segments (cargo, scheduled and business aviation) and by the extent of Covid restrictions on flights. For example, departing flights from Belgium were down by around half in 2020 but CO2 emissions were only reduced by 30%. In a new set of traffic scenarios for the period up to June 2021, Eurocontrol expects air traffic to be around 64% down in January 2021 compared to January 2019 and says the situation is quickly deteriorating as many countries across Europe are imposing stricter travel controls in response to the latest waves of Covid and risks associated with new variants. [...]

GreenAir Online

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