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How to make climate-neutral aviation fly
Romain Sacchi1, Viola Becattini2, Paolo Gabrielli2
1Technology Assessment Group, Laboratory for Energy Systems Analysis, Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen, Switzerland. romain.sacchi@psi.ch.
Nature Communications
|July 6, 2023
Summary
Achieving climate-neutral aviation requires more than just reducing CO2 emissions. Limiting air traffic is essential to mitigate the full climate impact, even with synthetic fuels and carbon capture.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Science
- Climate Change Mitigation
- Aviation Sustainability
Background:
- European aviation faces pressure to achieve net-zero emissions.
- Focusing solely on CO2 emissions overlooks up to 80% of aviation's climate impact.
- Non-CO2 impacts, including contrails and NOx, are significant climate drivers.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess technological pathways for climate-neutral aviation in Europe.
- To quantify the full climate impact of aviation, including non-CO2 effects.
- To evaluate the feasibility of synthetic jet fuels and direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS).
Main Methods:
- Rigorous life-cycle assessment (LCA) of aviation fuels and technologies.
- Time-dependent quantification of non-CO2 climate impacts.
- Analysis of resource demands and economic viability of proposed solutions.
Main Results:
- Electricity-based synthetic jet fuels combined with DACCS can technically enable climate-neutral aviation.
- Scaling synthetic fuel production faces significant economic and natural resource constraints.
- DACCS for fossil jet fuel necessitates vast CO2 storage and prolongs fossil fuel dependency.
Conclusions:
- Technological solutions alone are insufficient for climate-neutral aviation.
- Reducing air traffic volume is a critical factor in limiting overall climate impact.
- Sustainable aviation requires a holistic approach integrating technological innovation with demand-side management.
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