Aviation: Green House Gas Culprit?

This blog article discusses how the environment faces fresh threat from a new green house gas emitter - the shipping sector.

If you were thinking all this while that the aviation sector is the main contributor to the global warming scenario, then it is about time you changed your opinion.

Recent studies conducted by the European academics and British Petroleum have revealed a staggering reality. In the near future, the carbon dioxide emissions from shipping could very well surpass that from the aviation sector. This increase can be attributed to the growth in trade between various countries of the world.

The study was conducted by the oil giant British Petroleum and researchers at the Institute of Physics and Atmosphere in Wessling, Germany. The study estimates that while the present 70,000 global fleet currently uses 200 million tonnes of fuel every year, this could very well increase to 350 million tonnes by the year 2020. The number of ships is also bound to increase and so will the emissions.

While most people argue against the liberalization of air sector, the actuality of the situation is that the air sector will fall behind in green house gas emissions when compared to the shipping sector very soon. The main cause of worry now is that the shipping sector emissions are not covered under the Kyoto protocol or any other global treaty that checks green house gas emissions.

As globalization leads to increase in trade, orders are being placed by all countries of the world for bigger and faster ships. If no emission strategy is put in place for the shipping sector soon, the emissions are estimated to rise by 72 per cent by 2020. This can cause serious problems for the environment and hence something needs to be worked out quickly.