A logo of Airbus is seen at the entrance of its factory in Blagnac near Toulouse
By Patryk Krych | The World Daily | FEBRUARY 26th 2021
On Friday, the European plane producing company Airbus had made its list of emission rates and data public, thereby becoming one among many other countries gradually joining into the fight against climate change and a predicted 2060 climate disaster.
Since the introduction of the Paris Climate Accords back in 2015, and the recent reintroduction of the United States into the accords, there’s been increasing pressure put on companies to join in on the trend of releasing their emissions data. This is a practice meant to acknowledge the pressing need to take action against climate change, since the United Nation’s warning that several foreseeable disasters could occur if global emission rates aren’t limited in future.
Airbus claims to be the first plane making company to reveal its emissions data in this manner, amid developing plans amidst the aviation industry to see a total redesign following the end of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
What the released emission data revealed was that the 1,429 planes that they’d sold across the periods of 2019 and 2020 would inevitably end up emitting at least 1 billion tonnes of harmful carbon dioxide across their lifetimes serving the aviation industry.
The average lifespan of any aircraft is usually estimated to be around 22 years. Of the 566 aircrafts that Airbus had sold in 2020, there’s an estimated lifetime emission rate of 440 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. Of the 863 jets that it’d sold in the 2019 period, lifetime emissions are at a much higher estimated 740 million tonnes.
“The scale of the emissions disclosed underlines the need for governments to take drastic action to rein in the climate impact of flying,” said the aviation director for Brussels-based environmentalist group Transport & Environment, Andrew Murphy.
Following the release of the data, Airbus had paired it with an announcement that at the present time, they are working towards using and developing technology that’s more climate-friendly. This includes the potential implementation of a hybrid-electric propulsion system, which would release few-to-no harmful emissions and drastically help the global climate if used on a wider scale.
