Ryanair has joined the tail end to become one of Europe’s top ten largest carbon emitters – and the only airline at that – the rest are all coal-fired power plants.
The results have just come from the latest EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) registry, which was set up in 2005 to combat climate change, by limiting greenhouse gas emissions in cost-effective ways.
While the Irish low-cost carrier is Europe’s largest, clocking in 139.2 million passengers in 2018, this also translated to 9.9 megatonnes of greenhouse gases discharged, which is a 6.9 percent jump from the year before.
Said Andrew Murphy, aviation manager at European Federation for Transport & Environment (T&E), “When it comes to climate, Ryanair is the new coal”.
According to T&E, it comes as no surprise that the most undertaxed mode of transport – airlines don’t usually charge VAT on ticket sales or pay excise duty on fuel – is also the fastest growing carbon emitter.
And while the EU claims that carbon emissions for the aviation industry has gone up on a whole by 4.9 percent last year, ironically, other emissions-trading sectors showed an overall decline.