Ryanair ranks among the top 10 biggest polluters in Europe

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By Stéphane Amant, Senior Manager in charge of the Mobility Division

The Irish airline Ryanair laid the groundwork for the low-cost model more than 20 years ago and has developed it with the success we all know. In a sense, it is now reaping the rewards of that success by finding itself, despite itself, among the top 10 largest European emitters [1]. With nearly 7% growth in its business in 2018, Ryanair’s case is simply representative of the current momentum in the air travel industry as a whole, with traffic doubling every 15 years. It was inevitable that, sooner or later, Europe’s largest airline would make it onto this list. At a time when other industrial sectors affected by the European emissions trading market are stabilizing or even reducing their emissions, this brings into sharp focus the fact that the aviation sector is failing to curb its CO2 emissions—a victim of its own success.

To achieve this, an initial program called CORSIA (established by the International Civil Aviation Organization) will be rolled out on a voluntary basis starting in 2021, before becoming mandatory for international flights beginning in 2027. It requires airlines to offset all additional emissions compared to the 2020 baseline by purchasing carbon credits generated by mitigation or carbon sequestration projects… the nature of which has not yet been clearly defined. However, this mechanism is intended only as a transitional measure aimed at achieving the sector’s ultimate goal of halving its CO2 emissions by 2050 compared to 2005—even as the sector anticipates an eightfold increase in traffic! And to achieve that, offsetting will be of no use… The CEO of Ryanair will be hearing a lot more about this topic. We’ll also have the opportunity to discuss aviation and climate change again in future newsletters.

Sources: [1] Les EchosStéphane Amant, Senior Manager in charge of the Mobility Division