The full Russian invasion of Ukraine caused an increase in carbon dioxide emissions in aviation by 1% in 2023.
This is evidenced by the results of research by scientists from the University of Reading (Great Britain), the press service of the university reports.
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Western airlines were forbidden to fly over Russia. This forced them to choose much longer routes between Europe or North America and East Asia, burning more fuel, the article says.
In their study, scientists used flight tracking data and complex computer models to calculate how many additional fuels are used on new routes. They took into account factors such as wind zones that can significantly affect fuel consumption.
The study showed that:
- Bypass paths caused by the war in Ukraine led to the fact that the aircraft were used on average by 13% more fuel than the initial routes;
- The impact was even more for flights between Europe and Asia, where fuel consumption increased by 14.8%;
- Flights between North America and Asia were less, but still a significant increase of 9.8%.
After the invasion of Ukraine, there was a drop in the number of flights between Western countries and East Asia, since the airlines adjusted their routes. Subsequently, flights were restored, but they had to choose significant shunt routes, fly south of Russia or over the Arctic, – scientists emphasize.
It shows that this affected about 1.1 thousand flights per day, and the additional distance that they had to overcome has a noticeable effect on the general carbon trace of aviation.
These “workarounds” added 8.2 million tons of CO2 to global aviation emissions in 2023, ”the researchers said.
Scientists have also taken into account the restrictions of airspace compared to Libya, Syria and Yemen. They found that conflicts in each of these countries influenced 60-100 flights per day:
- The aircraft that passed the airspace of Libya was used on average 2.7% more fuel;
- Those who passed Syria are 2.9% more;
- Flights around Yemen had a slightly greater influence – aircraft used 4.3% more fuel:
- Nevertheless, these restrictions concerned a relatively small number of flights and required shorter routes, so their influence on global aviation emissions was less than 0.2%.
Source: Racurs
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