Aviation in Portugal emitted 7.1% of greenhouse gases
Aviation in Portugal represented 7.1% of the country’s total greenhouse gas supplies in 2018, revealed the Zero association, based on a tool that maps the climate impact of 1300 airports.
“The flights associated with the main Portuguese airports, considered only in one direction (and not round trip), resulted in 4.75 million tons of supplies of greenhouse gases in 2018,” stated Zero, based on data Airport Tracker, a tool launched by the European Federation of Transport and Environment, of which the environmentalist association Zero is a member.
The airport of Lisbon is, according to the same source, the main responsible for inheriting the departure flights, with 3.03 million tons of greenhouse gases (64% of the total brought), followed by the Porto, with 9.77 million, and Faro (0.57).
The information provided by this online tool that covers 99% of revealed flight flights only 20 airports were responsible for 27% of CO2 transport to carry out passenger air transport.
An analysis by Zero also shows that 44 airports each created more CO2 over the course of a year than a coal-fired thermal power plant.
“Airport Tracker allows us to visualize the deep socio-economic inequalities of aviation: the above airports are predominantly lagging behind in Asia-Pacific, North America and Europe, with passenger flights from just 20 cities creating an oblivious CO2 equivalent to a mid-range economy size, like that of Spain, “exemplifies the association in a document released this Tuesday.
Passenger flights departing from London Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt, Amsterdam Schiphol and Madrid Barajas emit 53 million tonnes of CO2, according to the source.
Of the 346 European Europeans, 10 are responsible for 42% of the region’s CO2 passenger bases and four of these 10 are in just two countries: the UK and Germany.
“All of these transfers are exempt from fuel tax, less than 15% of which is levied in the EU and UK transfer license trading schemes. These schemes only include domestic and EU flights, which means that the flights leaving Europe are not included, “complete the association.
When reading Zero, the efficiency gains achieved by aviation were outweighed by the growth in traffic.
“In the future, battery-powered aircraft may be chosen for shorter flights and hydrogen-powered aircraft are more promising for long-haul travel. However, since even major manufacturers believe that traditional jet engines will dominate by 2050, these technologies will probably not arrive in time to limit the sector’s climate impact to meet global decarbonization targets,” he warns.
“For Zero, it is essential to consider the total number of connections associated with the total number of flights in terms of climate neutrality and not only include domestic and displaced flights associated with landings and take-offs”, reads the statement issued by the association.