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News & Current Events May 8, 2026 at 11:11 AM

Airline emissions in Europe top pre-Covid levels despite pledge to decarbonise

Posted by Beo1217

Airline emissions in Europe top pre-Covid levels despite pledge to decarbonise
the Guardian
Airline emissions in Europe top pre-Covid levels despite pledge to decarbonise
Promises to cut emissions and use more fuel-efficient planes fail to stop rise, with Ryanair’s carbon footprint 50% up on 2019
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Notre-Dame-Gremlin 5 days ago +17
To the surprise of literally no one. Electric planes are doomed to remain novelty items limited to very short routes and “green fuels” are just “compliance fuels”, incredibly expense and in very short supply. If you want to reduce airline emissions, you reduce the number of flights either through : \- regulation : like outlawing short routes when alternatives (usually high speed trains) exist \- market contraction: by increasing ticket prices through taxation.
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xX609s-hartXx 5 days ago +4
I mean, you'd at least expect it to go down a bit with more expensive fuel now...
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hornswoggled111 4 days ago +2
A large universal carbon tax on jet fuel would have the same impact.
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Notre-Dame-Gremlin 5 days ago +4
Yes and multiples airlines are cancelling flights…or going out of business altogether (Spirit in the USA). Though presumably it won’t last.
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Leverpostei414 4 days ago +2
I don't think that is true. I do think they will be limited to short routes but that might not be a novelty when they become way cheaper
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Notre-Dame-Gremlin 4 days ago +2
Currently what I mean by short route , is REALLY short routes. They are absolutely not able to replace let’s say AIRBUS 320 on regional routes.
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Leverpostei414 4 days ago +1
Sure, they won't outcompete in 5000km routes in any foreseeable future. But a lot of routes are shorter than that, and there are good reasons to belive they will become significantly cheaper and then we go from long routes being less expensive per kilometer to short routes being the cheapest. That could change up the marked.
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Notre-Dame-Gremlin 4 days ago +2
I wasn’t thinking 5000 km routes…I don’t think electric planes could a 500 km flight with a hundred passengers.
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Impossible-Ground-98 1 day ago +1
Private jets are mostly short flights and benefit almost no one. They're almost 2% of all plane emissions! We should tax this shit heavily and put it forward replacing the short flighs with train connections. 2% for a tiny portion of people, it's ridiculous.
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imaginary_num6er 4 days ago -1
This is the reason why people who claim Europe will be able to move away from fossils fuels are full of shit.
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Notre-Dame-Gremlin 4 days ago +4
I don’t think such a sweeping statement makes much sense. Hydrocarbons are used in many industries. Some easier to displace than others.
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Old_Soc 5 days ago +4
Yeah.. until we find another "greener" propulsion system for airplanes, we're still gonna pump massive amounts of carbon into the air.
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Initial-Return8802 5 days ago +3
A small nuclear reaction to spin the turbines? Edit: Huh I was joking but the US and USSR did attempt it: > Both the US and Soviet Union experimented with nuclear engines. The goal was to develop bombers capable of staying aloft for weeks.
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Old_Soc 5 days ago +8
Yup... How crazy is that. I kinda miss the wild crazy ideas of the 1950-1960's. They just tried everything and anything.
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konart 4 days ago +1
Not just then: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9M730_Burevestnik
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tvtowers 5 days ago
Does this include Russia still using coal-burning Soviet era aircraft? "Russian Minister Says Building Airliner From Scratch Could Take Over 20 Years - The Moscow Times" https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/05/05/russian-minister-says-building-airliner-from-scratch-could-take-over-20-years-a92690
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