Climate Ukraine war increases CO2 emissions in air traffic
The war in Ukraine has led to an increase in CO2 emissions from air traffic. This is shown by a new study in the specialist journal "Communications Earth & Environment".
12.02.2025, 11:13
SDA
Numerous flight routes between Europe and Asia once passed over Russia and Ukraine. However, since the Russian invasion of the neighboring country, airlines have been using other routes. This makes journeys longer - with an impact on kerosene consumption and therefore also on the emission of climate-damaging gases.
"We are talking about around 1100 affected flights per day," explained co-author Nicolas Bellouin from Sorbonne University in Paris. "The detours contributed 8.2 million tons of CO2 to global aviation emissions in 2023." This corresponds to an increase in global carbon dioxide emissions from air traffic of around one percent in that year.
Some huge detours through closed airspace
According to the study, the greatest effect was caused by the fact that the entire Russian airspace was closed to Western airlines. In addition, the airlines no longer fly over Ukraine. Russian airlines, in turn, are banned from European Union airspace, which has led to the suspension of several connections.
A Lufthansa flight between Tokyo and Frankfurt am Main, for example, still took around ten and a half hours on January 7, 2022. On April 13, when the plane had to take a more northerly route over the Arctic, it took three hours longer. The return flight was extended from just under ten to just under twelve hours - because the flight route no longer led through Russia, but south through China.
Overall, fuel consumption on the affected flight routes between Europe and Asia increased by 14.8 percent, according to the study. Affected flights between North America and Asia would have required 9.8 percent more fuel. The route changes caused by the conflicts in Syria, Libya and Yemen, which were also considered by the authors, only had a very minor impact on CO2 emissions from a global perspective.
