New book on carbon footprint of international air passengers – shows Heathrow massively ahead of any other world airport by CO2

In a new book on global aviation carbon emissions, by Dave Southgate in Australia, there are a multitude of remarkable facts. The book gives details of CO2 emissions country by country, airport by airport and airline by airline.  The UK comes second globally for the amount of carbon produced from international flying, second only to the USA, and above Germany (3rd), UAE (4th) and Japan (5th).  The CO2 emissions generated from flights from Heathrow are not only the highest from any airport in the world, but they are some 45% higher than the second airport, ranked by CO2. Heathrow’s CO2 emissions are some 16.4 kt CO2, compared to Dubai in second  place(11 kt), Hong Kong third (10.3 kt) and Frankfurt fourth (10.2 kt).  In a global ranking of size of country carbon emissions, Heathrow would occupy 4th position in the country hierarchy if it were a country.  The top 10 countries constitute 50% of the global aviation carbon footprint. The carbon emissions of British Airways are the 2nd largest of any airline, other than Emirates.  Many more details in Dave Southgate’s book – and graphic below.

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Dave Southgate, working in Australia, has released his second book on aviation carbon footprinting – Aviation Carbon Footprint: Global Scheduled International Passenger Flights 2012.

This book follows on from The Carbon Footprint of Aircraft Operations in Australia – 2011 which he released in October 2011.

It uses the same computational method and reporting style as the earlier book to extend the Australian carbon footprinting to global international operations. In a similar manner to the first book, this document is designed as a resource for researchers, industry analysts, policy developers and interested members of the public.  It is aimed at stimulating thinking on better ways to both manage the carbon footprint of aircraft operations and to monitor and report aviation carbon footprints.    This is a free ebook – you can view here or download it from Scribd.      http://southgateaviation.wordpress.com/


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The book presents a large amount of information, about the global aviation industry and its carbon emissions.

Taking a few key facts that may be of interest to the UK

Aviation Carbon Footprint: Global Scheduled International Passenger Flights 2012.

Global Network from Southgate April 2013

 

  1. Highest CO2 route pairs at Heathrow:

    Heathrow – Singapore (1.01kt CO2);

    Heathrow – New York (1.00 kt CO2);

    Heathrow – Hong Kong (0.84);

    Heathrow – Los Angeles (0.67);

    Heathrow – Dubai(0.54)


     

  2. Top airlines globally by CO2:

    Emirates (17.3kt CO2),

    BA (15.8kt),

    Lufthansa (15.3kt),

    United (14.8),

    Delta (12.7),

    Air France (12.3),

    Singapore (10.4)

     

  3. Top 10 airlines make up about 35% of the global international aviation footprint with Emirates top, BA second, then Lufthansa, then United


     

  4. Top 5 world airports for CO2 emissions:

    Heathrow (16.4 kt CO2),

    Dubai (10.9 kt),

    Hong Kong (10.3 kt),

    Frankfurt (10.2 kt),

    Paris CDG (10.1 kt)

  5. Due to so many long haul flights, Heathrow responsible for massively more CO2 than ANY other global airport. Some 45% ahead of Dubai (2nd)

  6. Carbon emissions from Heathrow are about 5% of total global aviation emissions. [And they want to expand still further? ]


     

  7. Carbon footprint of scheduled international passenger departures from Heathrow is about same as 15th highest CO2 emitting US power station

  8. In a global ranking of size of country carbon emissions, Heathrow would occupy 4th position in the country hierarchy if it were a country.


     

  9. The top 10 countries constitute 50% of the global aviation carbon footprint.

    US

    UK

    Germany

    UAE

    Japan

    China

    France

    Spain

    Hong Kong

    Singapore


     

  10. Over 25% of the global footprint of international aviation arises from departures from just 3 countries – the USA, the UK and Germany.

  11. Aviation’s contribution to transport sector’s carbon footprint is about 10% (2008) but growing at greater rate than other transport modes


     

  12. International Transport Forum says in 2008 fuel uplifted for global international aviation was source of 455 Mt of CO2 cf. 250 Mt in 1990

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    These and many more details at