Suchergebnisse

Aviation and maritime transport are not explicitly mentioned in the Paris Agreement. In Article 4, however, the Parties aim to achieve a balance between anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and sinks - in other words, complete decarbonisation and climate neutrality - in the second half of this century. Since emissions from aviation and maritime transport are clearly anthropogenic, they fall within the scope of the Paris Agreement goals even without being explicitly mentioned. Within the scope of this project, BMU and UBA received comprehensive and timely support on many issues relating to greenhouse gas mitigation in international aviation and maritime transport. This support ranged from quantitative analysis of current proposals for policies or instruments to ad hoc support in and between negotiations of international bodies (ICAO, IMO, EU, etc.) and to further development of existing instruments or development of their own policy proposals. Over the course of this project, the discussion about greenhouse gas reductions in aviation and maritime transport moved somewhat towards a reduction path that is compatible with the Paris Agreement. This project has contributed to that change, thereby fulfilling its original objective. Nevertheless, international aviation and maritime transport are still far off a reduction path that is compatible with the Paris Agreement. With this in mind, efforts to make international agreements with ambitious targets and instruments must not diminish.

In addition to carbon dioxide, air traffic operation affects the climate through other emissions and atmospheric processes, such as the formation of ozone and contrail cirrus. The climate impact of these non-CO2 effects is strongly dependent on the emission location (in particular cruise altitude) and emission time (e.g. weather conditions) and, thus, highly non-linear to the fuel consumption. Although non-CO2 effects are responsible for about 2/3 of the climate impact of aviation, they are not yet taken into account in existing and currently planned emissions trading systems (e.g. EU ETS) or market-based measures (MBM, e.g. CORSIA 1). This research project focuses on the development of concepts for the integration of non-CO2 effects of air traffic into the EU ETS and under CORSIA. For this purpose, suitable climate metrics for assessing the relationship between non-CO2 and CO2 climate impacts are analyzed first (Part A). For selected non-CO2 calculation methodologies, the availability of the necessary data is examined and estimation procedures for non-existent data are investigated (Part B). Afterwards, the current practice in voluntary carbon markets for estimating CO2 and non-CO2 effects of aviation is presented (Part C). The additional administrative burden to verify reporting on aviation's non-CO2 is examined in Part D. In the final step, key design parameters for the integration of non-CO2 consequences of aviation in the EU ETS and CORSIA are evaluated (Part E). The inclusion of non-CO2 effects in the EU ETS and CORSIA is highly recommended for climatelogical reasons and technically feasible, but involves an additional administrative burden for authorities and aircraft operators. The level of the resulting mitigation incentive as well as the additional effort is strongly depending on the calculation methodology of the CO2 equivalents. For this choice, a trade-off must be made between a simple operational feasibility and a high incentive level to modify flight routing and to reduce the NOx emission indices. False mitigation incentives, which can arise from to the non-linearity between non-CO2 climate effects and fuel consumption, must be prevented.

Die negativen Folgen des Klimawandels sind wissenschaftlich erwiesen. Der weitere Ausstoß von klimaschädlichen Gasen muss dringend stärker unterbunden werden. Das von der Bundesregierung beschlossene Klimaschutzprogramm ist ein Schritt in die richtige Richtung. Es ist aber zu wenig ambitioniert, um tatsächlich das von der Klimakonferenz in Paris avisierte Ziel, die Klimaerwärmung auf 1,5°C zu begrenzen, erreichen zu können. Die Autorinnen und Autoren untersuchen in den Bereichen Windkraft, Wohngebäude, Luft- und Straßenverkehr, welche Maßnahmen erforderlich sind und wie die gesetzten Ziele effizienter erreicht werden können. Sie sprechen sich vor allem für eine höhere Bepreisung der CO2-Emissionen aus.

The climate neutrality of air and sea transport can hardly be achieved without the accelerated use of almost GHG-neutral fuels. Such fuels are generated from renewable electricity and are thus called electro fuels or (synthetic) e-fuels. To illustrate how these e-fuels can be made available and how to ensure that in both sectors only such fuels are used, several policy roadmaps have been sketched. In terms of e-fuel supply, there are significant differences between aviation and maritime transport: While e-kerosene is widely identified and accepted as future fuel for aviation, a single prospective fuel has not yet emerged for maritime transport. Currently, there is a challenging dilemma for policy makers. On the one hand, the transition towards defossilizing international transport should be accomplished by 2050, requiring that the right decisions are made sooner rather than later. Particularly for shipping, the main goal for the years ahead is, on the other hand, to limit the number of e-fuels pursued. Unless a dominant fuel or fuels are supported by a critical mass of countries, it will hardly be possible to trigger the economies-of-scale dynamics required to accomplish the transition. Our assessment also shows that the first regulatory steps must be taken immediately on all levels. National governments need to ensure that the policies which provide incentives and guidance to investors and operators are adopted as soon as possible and are actively supported by policy initiatives at European and international level. The years up to 2025 are decisive for achieving defossilization of aviation and maritime transport. If appropriate policies are not set in place by then, at least at national and European level, it will be difficult to achieve the goal of defossilization by 2050.