Air freight fuels surge in greenhouse gas emissions

Stand.earth calls on FedEx, UPS and Amazon Air to be more transparent about the cost of air freight shipping, and provide a full account of their greenhouse gas emissions

Air freight operators have increased their greenhouse gas emissions by 25% compared with 2019.

The Stand.earth Research Group (SRG) reported that in 2023, there were 300,000 more flights than in 2019, an increase in flight volume of almost 30%. It also found that the US accounted for more than 40% of global air freight emissions and three operators – FedEx, UPS and Amazon Air – generated more than a quarter (27%) of world’s air freight emissions.

Devyani Singh, Investigative Researcher at SRG said: “Air freighters are flying more planes, from more places, more often, leading to their unabated growth. Amazon Air and other air freight carriers must end their reliance on air cargo and shift freight shipments to lower-carbon modes of transport such as marine shipping or rail.”

Josh Archer, Senior Climate Campaigner at Stand.earth called on the ‘Big Three’ polluters to be more open. “There is great potential for air freight cargo industry leaders like FedEx, UPS and Amazon Air to navigate the sector toward alignment with climate and public health imperatives.

“By adopting greater transparency on the true costs of air freight shipping, and providing full accounting of their GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions, they can lead the implementation of best practices for long-term sustainable business operations.”

Candelaria Bergero, Researcher at the Department of Earth System Sciences at the University of California said the findings were “the opposite of where we should be heading”.

She said: “There are not a lot of options to decrease emissions from aviation, and so if demand grows, so will the sector’s climate impact.

“There is potential for hydrogen and electric-powered planes, but their range is likely to be limited because of weight/volume. So, most of the hopes are put on sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) – which are growing rapidly, but their overall share on aviation's fuel consumption remains small.

“We should also consider which goods are essential to be shipped by plane. A combination of both approaches would help us mitigate aviation's climate impacts.”

“Not only does this dramatic increase threaten a safe future climate, it adds to dangerous levels of air pollution, especially from ultra fine particles (UFPs).” 

Celeste Hicks, Policy Manager at Aviation Environment Federation (AEF) said that emissions from air freight were “aviation's dirty secret”.

“Not only does this dramatic increase threaten a safe future climate, it adds to dangerous levels of air pollution, especially from ultra fine particles (UFPs).

“Cargo planes are often older and less efficient, with some being converted from retired passenger aircraft. It's simply unsustainable to continue on this trajectory, expecting ever quicker delivery times for non-urgent goods. It's high time policy makers faced up to this black hole in policy.”

Hicks noted that the Stand.earth findings coincide with a new report published by European campaign group, Transport & Environment, which found that UFPs from aircraft could pose serious health risks to the populations around airports.

Using extrapolated data, the report suggested that at the four UK airports studied – Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester – UFPs from aircraft could be associated with an additional 41,000 cases of high blood pressure, 44,000 cases of diabetes and 2,200 cases of dementia.