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Aviation’s Greatest Environmental

Challenge is Stopping Misinformation

By Geoffrey Thomas

viation’s greatest challenge countries above avia- In the May 14, 2023 of
is not Net zero but stopping
A the tsunami of misinfor- tion contribute more The Economist’s online
mation about its extraordinary than 97% of all CO2 edition, the headline
progress over the past 60 years emissions. was “The aviation
in reducing CO2 per passenger
and its blueprint for the future. Interestingly, after an apparent industry wants to be
backlash, that paragraph was net zero—but not yet.”
Climate change is real, of that later omitted from the online
there is no doubt but there article but a Google search on The first paragraph read: “Flying
is so much misinformation September 9, 2023, still had it as is a dirty business. Airliners
about the culprits that when the headline paragraph as can account for more than 2% of the
the truth emerges it is barely be seen below. annual global emissions from
recognizable.

That is an enormous challenge
for aviation as its superb track
record is being dismissed by not
only social media but also some
of the world’s most prestigious
magazines and newspapers –
the Wall Street Journal and the
Economist.

On August 6, 2023, in a Wall
Street Journal opinion piece,
Fred Krupp President of
Environmental Defense Fund,
a U.S.-based nonprofit environ-
mental advocacy group, claimed
that “The global aviation industry Screenshot taken on September 9, 2023, of the August 6th Wall Street Journal article
is one of the largest sources in a Google Search showing the claim of aviation’s impact.
of climate pollution. If its emis-
sions were measured alongside
countries, it would be the sixth In 2017, aviation contributed the burning of fossil fuels, many
largest.” 1.46% of global CO2 accord- times commercial aviation’s con-
ing to the 2018 Report from tribution to world GDP.”
Technically he is right, the Publications Office of the The Economist’s article has no
European Union when report-
except that he failed ing on the CO2 emissions of attribution to the GDP claim
to mention that the all world countries. It is now whereas according to Oxford
Economics aviation’s contribu-
accepted that the figure is just
five worst polluting above 2%. tion is 4.1% of global GDP.
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