Air travel to get more energy efficient?

One of the stories that crept under my personal radar a couple of week ago related to aircraft engines. Aircrafts account of 2% of the greenhouse gas emissions. The impact of this figure is thought to be higher because the emissions are expelled at height, where they can do the most absorption of light energy. Further aircraft expel vapour trials which are thought to have an effect on the amount of light reaching the surface of the planet by dimming it.

So it is possible, but not completely proved, that flying gives us the worst of all possible worlds – heating the air and dimming the surface.   In the UK  Business Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, has announced that £45 million of taxpayer’s money will be spent on funding a “partnership” (as these things are fashionably bit inaccurately called) between nine Universities and Rolls-Royce, who produce aircraft engines, in a quest to discover ways of making aircraft engines more efficient. If the research finds a more efficient engine, there is no guarantee that the world’s airlines and military will adopt it. The nine Universities concerned would be better to focus research on projects less grand but with better environmental effect.It is an interesting contrast to the way that the Government has treated water heating, where for £45 million, there are existing ways to reduce emission. The aircraft industry has over the years received many hand outs form the taxpayer.  Justification of this is that “The knowledge, skills and high-end production … give us huge opportunities to benefit as global demand for low carbon products grows.” Yes, the opportunities are so huge that Rolls-Royce needs a hand out in order to take advantage of them. By all means invest in low carbon research which is important, but when the ship is sinking it is not the time for the crew to start re-arranging the deckchairs.

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