Climate-neutrality versus carbon-neutrality for aviation biofuel policy

Abstract

We model global aviation biofuel uptake under a future emissions trading policy, and compare aviation CO2 emission reductions with climate impact reductions (CO2 and non-CO2). We find that climate impacts in terms of global warming potential are less favourable than CO2 climate impacts for biofuel use, dependent on the time horizon of the chosen output climate metric. Results indicate that widespread use of aviation biofuel may lead to a scenario in which aviation growth is accompanied by flat or decreasing carbon emissions but an increasing total climate impact.