airplane

The sky's the limit

Sarah Jane Silva

U of T researcher explores Canada's role in addressing aircraft emissions

The aviation market is booming.

Predicted to rise over the next few decades, emissions from aviation represent about two per cent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, a fact that has increasingly attracted the attention of environmentalists, politicians and researchers worldwide.

“Emission’s from international aviation are growing rapidly and policy efforts to mitigate them are insufficient,” said Laurel Besco, assistant professor in the Department of Geography, and the Institute for Management & Innovation at the University of Toronto.

“In a Canadian context, the transportation sector is the second largest emitter of GHG emissions.”

The challenges of reducing aviation emissions is the focus of a comprehensive study published in the peer-reviewed journal Ottawa Law Review by Besco and coauthor Natalie J. Chalifour, an associate professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa.

The study also examines a number of options the federal government could pursue for reducing aviation emissions from domestic aviation such as regulations, a carbon price, and transitions in transportation mode.

The authors write that if aviation were a country, it would be among the world’s top ten emitters of CO2, concluding that one of the most important things is for Canada to show leadership in this area.

 

 

A bi-annual speaker series offered by the Institute for Management & Innovation, IMI in the Headlines provides the UTM community with an informal and engaging opportunity to listen and discuss recent advances in research.