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CC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Marginal climate and air quality costs of aviation emissions
Environmental research letters, Vol.14(11), p.114031
11/08/2019
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/117899
Appears in Aviation Sustainability Center (ASCENT)
Abstract
Aviation emissions have been found to cause 5% of global anthropogenic radiative forcing and ∼16 000 premature deaths annually due to impaired air quality. When aiming to reduce these impacts, decision makers often face trade-offs between different emission species or impacts in different times and locations. To inform rational decision-making, this study computes aviation's marginal climate and air quality impacts per tonne of species emitted and accounts for the altitude, location, and chemical composition of emissions. Climate impacts are calculated using a reduced-order climate model, and air quality-related health impacts are quantified using marginal atmospheric sensitivities to emissions from the adjoint of the global chemistry-transport model GEOS-Chem in combination with concentration response functions and the value of statistical life. The results indicate that 90% of the global impacts per unit of fuel burn are attributable to cruise emissions, and that 64% of all damages are the result of air quality impacts. Furthermore, nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon dioxide (CO2), and contrails are collectively responsible for 97% of the total impact. Applying our result metrics to an example, we find that a 20% NOx stringency scenario for new aircraft would reduce the net atmospheric impacts by 700 m USD during the first year of operation, even if the NOx emission reductions cause a small increase in CO2 emissions of 2%. In such a way, the damage metrics can be used to rapidly evaluate the atmospheric impacts of market growth as well as emissions trade-offs of aviation-related policies or technology improvements.
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Details
- Title
- Marginal climate and air quality costs of aviation emissions
- Creators
- Carla Grobler - Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States of AmericaPhilip J Wolfe - Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States of AmericaKingshuk Dasadhikari - Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States of AmericaIrene C Dedoussi - Delft University of Technology Section Aircraft Noise and Climate Effects, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Kluyverweg 1, 2629 HS, Delft, The NetherlandsFlorian Allroggen - Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States of AmericaRaymond L Speth - Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States of AmericaSebastian D Eastham - Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States of AmericaAkshat Agarwal - Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States of AmericaMark D Staples - Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States of AmericaJayant Sabnis - Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States of AmericaSteven R H Barrett - Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States of America
- Publication Details
- Environmental research letters, Vol.14(11), p.114031
- Academic Unit
- Aviation Sustainability Center (ASCENT); Emissions
- Publisher
- IOP Publishing
- Number of pages
- 16
- Grants
- 13-C-AJFE-MIT-04, Federal Aviation Administration (United States, Washington) - FAA13-C-AJFE-MIT-17, Federal Aviation Administration (United States, Washington) - FAA13-C-AJFE-MIT-24, Federal Aviation Administration (United States, Washington) - FAA13-C-AJFE-MIT-37, Federal Aviation Administration (United States, Washington) - FAA13-C-AJFE-MIT-07, Federal Aviation Administration (United States, Washington) - FAA13-C-AJFE-MIT-18, Federal Aviation Administration (United States, Washington) - FAA13-C-AJFE-MIT-25, Federal Aviation Administration (United States, Washington) - FAA13-C-AJFE-MIT-32, Federal Aviation Administration (United States, Washington) - FAA13-C-AJFE-MIT-41, Federal Aviation Administration (United States, Washington) - FAA13-C-AJFE-MIT-42, Federal Aviation Administration (United States, Washington) - FAA
- Grant note
- Fellowship for 2016-2021 / Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001332) ASCENT Project 20 Award 13-C-AJFE-MIT; ASCENT Project 21 Award 13-C-ADJFE-MIT / Federal Aviation Administration (https://doi.org/10.13039/100006282)
- Identifiers
- 99900581261101842
- Copyright
- Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article