Study: 1% of people cause half of global aviation emissions

November 20, 2020

The 11/17/2020 Guardian article below discusses a study published in November, 2020, in the journal Global Environmental Change. The report by Stefan Gössling and Andreas Humpe focused on the "fuel use and emissions associated with passenger transport." The emissions released by the enormous number of piston-engine aircraft used by flight training schools and recreational flyers were not factored in. Even so, the research revealed that the U.S. is the world's biggest contributor to aviation-caused climate change.

The U.S. has more airports than any other country on the planet, over 21,000. Of that number 500 are commercial passenger airports. The rest are general aviation facilities that cater to the 1/4 of 1% of the population certified to fly in this country; of that number, 92% are men. For additional information on this topic see Oregon Aviation Policies – Special Privilege for the Few.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in many respects functions as a bastion of white privilege by funneling billions of public transportation dollars into promoting the financial interests of this extremely small sliver of the population. The FAA is an agency drastically in need of a complete overhaul. Safeguards need to be put into place to ensure that public monies are invested prudently and wisely on environmentally sustainable transportation projects such as high speed rail, bicycle paths and walking trails. For the sake of democracy and in the interest of preserving this planet for current and future generations, long established U.S. policies that force the public to subsidize wealthy jet and private aircraft owners, for profit flight training companies, and other aviation businesses must be terminated.

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1% of people cause half of global aviation emissions – study

by Damian Carrington, Environmental Editor for the Guardian

Frequent-flying "super emitters" who represent just 1% of the world's population caused half of aviation's carbon emissions in 2018, according to a study.

Airlines produced a billion tonnes of CO2 and benefited from a $100bn (£75bn) subsidy by not paying for the climate damage they caused, the researchers estimated. The analysis draws together data to give the clearest global picture of the impact of frequent fliers.

Only 11% of the world's population took a flight in 2018 and 4% flew abroad. US air passengers have by far the biggest carbon footprint among rich countries. Its aviation emissions are bigger than the next 10 countries combined, including the UK, Japan, Germany and Australia, the study reports.

The researchers said the study showed that an elite group enjoying frequent flights had a big impact on the climate crisis that affected everyone.

To read the full article click on the following link:

1% of people cause half of global aviation emissions – study