Aviation greenhouse gas emissions: peculiarity and regulation

Even if aviation industry has considerably reduced its fuel consumption in relation to goods and passengers carried, however, the remarkable, and almost constant, increment of flights has caused a substantial increase of chemical pollutants. In particular, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, from aviation, currently account for approximately 3.5% of the total emissions from developed countries. The most significant impacts are due to emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides and other substances that, even in small amounts (water vapour, CH4, N2O, particulates, etc.), due to their high Radiative Forcing (RF), are able to vary, from about 2 to 4 times greater than those of CO2 alone (according to an IPCC report), the physical parameters (temperature, albedo, humidity, etc.) and chemical composition of the atmosphere, changing at the same time, many natural phenomena like the intensity, the rate and the same type of precipitations. Several guidelines and norms for the adoption and implementation of a global scheme of regulations are currently being suggested by numerous subjects, although the prospects of a comprehensive inter-governmental agreement on the adoption of these schemes are uncertain. European Commission has resolved incorporating aviation in the Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). This new Directive has become effective from the 1st January 2012, but certain airlines have already threatened to boycott it, while others have suggested that they will transfer the costs to their passengers. The increase in costs for airlines could lead to a competitive disadvantage for European airlines and to a substantial environmental inefficiency of this normative measure.