Reducing the climate change impacts of aviation by restricting cruise altitudes

摘要

Two of the ways in which air travel affects climate are theemission of carbon dioxide and the creation of high-altitudecontrails. One possible impact reduction strategy is to significantlyreduce the formation of contrails. This could be achieved by limitingthe cruise altitude of aircraft. If implemented, this could se-verely constrain air space capacity, especially in parts of Europe.In addition, carbon emissions would likely be higher due to lessefficient aircraft operation at lower cruise altitudes. This paperdescribes an analysis of thee trade-offs using an air spacessimulation model as applied to European airspace.