Sustainable and eco-friendly living is the goal nowadays. When the signs of global warming and climate change have become too real and too devastating, so to avoid possible "greenwashing," Europe is planning on putting a label on how much carbon footprint flights leave each time they fly.
The label will tell passengers the flight's carbon footprint.
Eco-Ranking Labels Planned
According to Engadget, train passengers in Europe are typically shown exactly how much carbon they'll be responsible for putting into the atmosphere, and now the EU Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is planning to create a similar scheme.
Specifically, the project aims to provide "reliable, comparable and verifiable information" to passengers to make sustainable decisions whenever they are traveling by plane.
Furthermore, this is believed to help against greenwashing that happens whenever some airlines would exaggerate their claims of how eco-friendly their flights are.
It is possible that the eco seals would be added to their system by the end of 2022, as per Reuters, but it's hard to say when passengers would actually start seeing the labels on their tickets.
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How Aviation Contributes to Pollution
The EASA is planning to make high-speed trains as the benchmark for these consumer labels and categorize flights from different classes, including regional flights, bigger planes that have center aisles, and heavier aircraft like the Airbus A380.
Even future air taxies will be included in the list.
Furthermore, the agency will take into consideration various other components such as the waste they generated, use of bio-fuel, recycling rates, and more.
In a recent study that was published in the scientific journal "Atmospheric Environment," it has been shown that aviation is responsible for 3.5% of the pollution that causes global warming, coming from carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from planes, as well as nitrogen oxide (NOx), contrails, sulphate aerosol gases, water vapor, soot, as well as other aerosols.
This is why it is incredibly important for the public to be more aware of how much carbon they will leave behind when they take certain flights and routes.
Pressure on Global Airlines
However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the world was at a standstill, local and international flights were suspended, clearing the skies of aviation traffic of up to 60% to 80%, but experts believe the numbers would go back to pre-pandemic figures by 2025.
When there was no air travel and even land travel was scarce, experts have seen a clearer atmosphere for the first time in a long time, which helped Earth breathe a little.
But if things go back to like how they used to before, pollution would be back in no time.
Nevertheless, even before the pandemic came, most global airlines have been facing pressure from corporate clients when it comes to sustainable options as they have become more alert to these environmental targets.
Although leaving behind a carbon footprint is almost impossible in today's world, the public could create decisions that could lessen it and help care for the environment.
The project is part of Europe's plans to make the continent carbon-neutral by 2050, part of the European Green Deal.
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Written by: Nhx Tingson
