Carbon Footprint of Indian Aviation

The Carbon Footprint of Indian Aviation 2011 is the first-ever report that gives a comprehensive and detailed information on the CO2 emissions. It identifies the main stakeholders of Indian aviation involved in the creation of this carbon footprint, intro

Based on fuel data consumption collected directly from 7 Indian scheduled passenger airlines and 1 cargo airline, the carbon footprint of Indian scheduled airlines to/from domestic destinations was 67,55,000 tonnes of CO2. The carbon footprint of Indian scheduled airlines to/from international destinations was 59,49,000 tonnes of CO2. Therefore, the carbon footprint of Indian scheduled airlines for domestic and international operations was 1,27,04,000 tonnes of CO2. This represents a 6% increase in comparison to 2010 (11,990,000 tonnes). The carbon footprint of foreign airlines serving international destinations from Indian airports, which is based on Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) uplift from India, reached 36,23,000 tonnes of CO2. The carbon footprint of scheduled Indian airlines and foreign airlines (to international destinations) represents approximately 1% of the country’s total CO2 emissions, which is significantly lower than the global average contribution of airlines, which represent approximately 2% of global anthropogenic emissions.

The report also presents the various fuel types and their emission factors. It further delineates the breakdown of CO2 emissions based on the three major airline sources. It is estimated that approximately 95% of aviation’s emissions are emitted from aircraft while just 5% come from airport related activities. Therefore, applying this assumption, it is estimated that Indian airports emitted around 7,00,000 tonnes of CO2. This is consistent with preliminary data provided by 5 private airports and 14 airports of AAI that was converted to emissions using the emission factors listed in the table. Furthermore, electricity consumption is the main source of airport CO2 emissions.