Contrails, Aviation, and Climate Change

Christian Azar, Daniel Johansson, Susanne Pettersson and Thomas Sterner
Additional contact information
Thomas Sterner: Resources for the Future

No 25-13, RFF Issue Briefs from Resources for the Future

Abstract: Aviation impacts the climate in several ways. In addition to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the combustion of jet fuel, there are also the climate impacts of nitrogen oxides, particles, water vapor, and condensation trails, or contrails, white cloudlike streaks sometimes visible in the sky. Out of the non-CO2 effects, contrails are the most important, and in terms of climate impacts, they are broadly comparable to the carbon dioxide emissions from aviation.How are contrails formed? How do they affect the climate? And what can be done to reduce them? In this paper, we try to answer these questions.

Date: 2025-11-20
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env, nep-res and nep-tre
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.rff.org/documents/5128/IB_25-13_YOFGy9s.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rff:ibrief:ib-25-13

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in RFF Issue Briefs from Resources for the Future Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Resources for the Future ().