The Brussels-based European Federation for Transport & Environment (T&E), an umbrella for NGOs working in the field of sustainable transport policy, revealed that the EU’s official figures show that Ryanair has become the first airline to become one of the highest emitters of carbon pollution, joining coal plants in the list of the top ten carbon polluters.
T&E based its findings on statistics published by the EU’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), which reveal that the budget airline now occupies the tenth spot in the list of top carbon emitters.
The campaign group’s analysis of the situation described this as a reflection of Europe’s failure to introduce effective measures to curb the “runaway emissions growth” of the aviation industry, which does not pay tax on fuel or VAT on tickets.
T&E’s aviation manager Andrew Murphy commented that “when it comes to climate, Ryanair is the new coal. This trend will only continue until Europe realises that this undertaxed and under-regulated sector needs to be brought into line, starting with a tax on kerosene and the introduction of mandates that force airlines to switch to zero-emission jet fuel.”
The report outlined that airline carbon emissions grew by 4.9% in Europe in 2018, which marked a contrasting trend to other emissions-trading sectors in the EU, which experienced a 3.9% decline. In 2018, Ryanair declared 9.9 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions to the EU ETS, showing a nearly 7% increase compared to the previous year.
