New research calls for climate-neutral, not carbon-neutral aviation

New research claims that efforts for the aviation industry to be net zero in terms of carbon emissions by 2050 would not be enough to prevent significant global warming since existing models do not take into account the impact of contrails. In a new paper (Brazzola, N., Patt, A. & Wohland, J. Definitions and implications of climate-neutral aviation. Nat. Clim. Chang. (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01404-7), Nicoletta Brazzola  at ETH Zurich in Switzerland and her colleagues, present the findings of their research that even if efforts to reduce carbon emissions succeed as planned, the aviation sector could still contribute to an additional warming of global temperature by