ICAO, Google join forces to improve methodologies for calculating carbon emissions
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and internet search engine Google have joined forces to enhance methodologies for calculating carbon emissions in the aviation sector.
In a statement issued today December 7, 2023, ICAO said this collaboration aims to refine existing approaches, enabling better-informed decisions by the public, industry stakeholders, and regulators regarding environmentally sustainable air transport.
The partnership seeks to address discrepancies in current aviation carbon calculators, attributed to diverse data sets, methodological simplifications, and scientific uncertainties.
“Currently, a wide range of independently produced aviation carbon calculators provide very diverse emissions estimate results for a given aircraft and flight,” emphasized ICAO Secretary General Juan Carlos Salazar.
“This is largely due to different sets of data being employed, simplifications in the related methodologies, and scientific uncertainty. ICAO’s new partnership with Google should result in much more reliable results for passengers and shippers everywhere,” Salazar added.
The ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator is the only calculator of its type to be approved by aviation regulators, and is presently used extensively by consumers, business, governments, international organizations, non-profit organizations, and UN system organizations.
Google’s Travel Impact Model is a publicly accessible methodology for estimating flight emissions at the individual passenger level.
Today, the Travel Impact Model helps people choose lower emitting flights by providing the carbon emission estimates on Google Flights and other online travel platforms, through Google’s collaboration with Travalyst.
“We want to help everyone make more sustainable choices when they travel,” said Sebnem Erzan, Head of Travel Sustainability & Transport Partnerships, Google.
“Together with ICAO, we can continue to improve the Travel Impact Model for flight emissions and increase transparency for travelers around the world.”
“We’re very confident that ICAO and Google’s collaboration will provide greater integrity and consistency in reported greenhouse gasses inventories, and more accurate carbon footprint estimations,” Erzan added.
