India among top five developing country in aviation emission in 2019

New Delhi: India was among the top five economically developing countries in terms of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the aviation sector, in 2019 as per the new study.

Calculating “nearly real-time” aviation emissions using global flight data, researchers found that overall, the US, China and Great Britain were the topmost contributors, with 22 per cent, 14 per cent and roughly four per cent share.

However, among the economically developing countries, India was found to be the third biggest contributor with close to three per cent share in global CO2 emissions from aviation, following China at 14 per cent and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at more than three per cent.

The research team at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology also found that India’s share in global CO2 emissions from domestic aviation was the third highest at 1.5 per cent.

“The countries with the highest absolute domestic aviation CO2 emissions (global percentage share in total CO2 aviation emissions in parentheses) are the USA (13.4 per cent), China (8.9 per cent), India (1.5 per cent), Russia (1.2 per cent), and Japan (1.1 per cent),” the authors wrote.

The findings were published in the journal ‘Environmental Research Letters’.

“Our work fills the reporting gaps, so that this can inform policy and hopefully improve future negotiations,” said first author Jan Klenner, a PhD candidate at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

“Now, we have a much clearer picture of aviation emissions per country, including previously unreported emissions, which tells you something about how we can go about reducing them,” said co-author Helene Muri, a research professor at the university.

The abillity to calculate nearly real-time aviation emissions could also provide an important tool as the industry makes changes to de-carbonise, according to co-author Anders Hammer Stromman, a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.