Aviation Industry Unites to Tackle Non-CO2 Emissions
Highlights
- Aviation leaders—Airbus, The Boeing Company, Dassault Aviation, GE Aerospace, Rolls-Royce, RTX, and Safran—unite to tackle non-CO2 emissions alongside CO2 reduction.
- Increased research funding is crucial to develop solutions for contrails, NOx emissions, and other non-CO2 impacts.
- Collaboration with academia, governments, and industry partners is important for advancing seven key research priorities.
The aviation industry is committed to achieving net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050. This includes the production, distribution, and adoption of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF), advanced aircraft technologies, and improved operations.
However, achieving climate neutrality requires addressing the complete picture, which includes non-CO2 emissions like nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides, aerosols, soot, and contrails.
Understanding and Mitigating Non-CO2 Effects
The industry is working with research institutions, universities, and stakeholders on various projects to understand and mitigate non-CO2 emissions. These efforts involve improving our knowledge of their climate impact and exploring potential solutions through advancements in fuels, engine technology, and flight operations. Examples include the FAA-ASCENT, CLEEN, SESAR's CICONIA, Airbus' ECLIF3 and VOLCAN, and Boeing's ecoDemonstrator Explorer projects.
Contrails
Contrails, persistent ice clouds formed by aircraft exhaust, are a significant contributor to non-CO2 warming. While scientific studies have attempted to quantify their impact, uncertainties remain due to limited understanding of the physical and chemical processes involved.
Similarly, the impact of NOx emissions depends on various factors like engine design, operating conditions, and atmospheric conditions. Accurate quantification of these interactions requires further research and data collection.
Seven Priorities for Collaborative Research
Industry leaders call for increased research funding to:
- Improve understanding of contrail formation, persistence, and climate impact.
- Investigate the impact of fuels (conventional jet fuel, SAF, hydrogen) and engine technologies on emissions properties influencing contrails.
- Enhance knowledge of aerosol cloud interactions and their effects on climate.
- Refine understanding of the radiative impact and modelling uncertainties of NOx emissions.
- Analyse the interdependencies and trade-offs between different aviation emissions (NOx, soot, contrails, CO2, and noise).
- Establish and improve common models for quantifying aviation's climate impact.
- Investigate the potential impacts of mitigation strategies on airspace networks.
A Unified Approach for a Sustainable Future
The aviation industry is united in its focus on research, flight testing, and data transparency to address these seven priorities. Collaboration between academic, government, and industry stakeholders is necessary for achieving meaningful progress toward a more sustainable aviation future.
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Source: Rolls-Royce
