Every morning, Marie Dupin slips into the skin of a personality, an event, a place or a fact at the heart of the news.
While we learned on Wednesday June 14 that with global warming, air turbulence will be more and more frequent, according to Airbus, there will be twice as many planes in 20 years, i.e. just over 46,000 devices. They will be more numerous because it will be necessary to build more fuel-efficient, and therefore smaller, planes. And who says smaller says more planes, because at the same time, more and more of us will be traveling.
>> Airlines expect 4.35 billion passengers in 2023
For example in China, domestic flights should be multiplied by three by 2042 and by five for domestic flights in India. Too bad if planes are already responsible for at least 3% of global CO2 emissions, since according to several studies, planes could actually contribute to 6% of global warming taking into account the impact of white streaks on the greenhouse effect.
Low-carbon planes?
However, the aviation sector agreed last October to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050… Net zero carbon emissions with twice as many planes seems paradoxical. But several avenues are on the table to reduce air pollution. First of all, there is the development of biofuels, but they are only organic in name, because they are still major consumers of agricultural land. Another solution considered: the electric or hydrogen plane, but it is still difficult to mass produce.
There is also the possibility of buying carbon credits. Carbon credits are a bit like when you drink a diet soda to compensate after eating a big burger! With carbon credits, you pollute, but at the same time you give money to a company that fights against deforestation, for example. Again, goodwill is not guaranteed as a few days ago the Guardian revealed how the industry’s leading company actually sells more wind than it plants trees.
The only real solution to raise the bar, on which no one seems to be serious, is the reduction of air traffic. So with this press release from Airbus which predicts twice as many planes in the sky, we can really wonder if there is a pilot in the plane.