The sky took a breath when the planes left the skies
Hundreds of thousands of flights around the world were canceled in March due to the quarantine measures taken to stop the spread of the coronavirus epidemic worldwide.
As a result of this, while many sectors, especially aviation and tourism, fell into a difficult times, it was announced that 28 million tons less carbon dioxide was released into the air thanks to more than 1 million flights canceled in total. Aircraft emissions have decreased by a third in recent months because of the flights cancelled around the world due to the coronavirus outbreak. Scientists announced that this decrease is equivalent to the absence of 6 million vehicles.
Since nearly 1 million flights worldwide were canceled in March, 28 million tons less carbon dioxide was released into the air. That’s the equivalent of the UK’s one-month carbondioxide emissions, a 31 percent drop from the same period last year.
The most dramatic crisis
Lauri Myllyvirta, principal analyst at the Center for Energy and Clean Air Research, a Finnish research group, referred to past shocks in commercial aviation, particularly the September 9th terrorist attacks of 2001 and the Eyjafjallajökull volcanic eruption ten years ago, said, “None of these events had the global and dramatic impact as much as the ongoing coronavirus crisis did.”
The number of scheduled flights in the last week of March was almost half that of the same period a year ago as governments around the world restricted air travel to contain the epidemic. Private jet flights also experienced disruptions.
In the first week of April, the number of flights to transfer centers such as England, Hong Kong and Switzerland decreased by more than 90 percent. According to the data of the International Air Transport Association, the number of all flights decreased by 70 percent as of this month.
Automotive based emissions have also decreased
Pollution from other modes of transport has also decreased. Emissions from cars and motorcycles in Europe have decreased by 88 percent since the beginning of the crisis.
The United States has allocated $50 billion in loans and collateral to airlines, while countries such as Norway, Italy, Australia and New Zealand have all provided various stimulus packages. According to the International Council for Clean Transport, global carbon dioxide emissions from commercial flights in 2018 were 918 million tons. This figure is 2,4 percent of carbon emissions from fossil fuel use. ICCT estimates that the figure has increased by 32 percent in the last 5 years.
