The impact of aircraft emissions on climate has been studied extensively by a number of research projects supported under the Sixth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP6, 2002‑06) such as QUANTIFY ‘Quantifying the climate impact of global and regional transport systems’(1) and ATTICA ‘European assessment of transport impact on climate change and ozone depletion’(2). Results show a potential significant impact of aircraft emissions on climate change. Aircraft contrails and aircraft induced cirrus cloudiness have been shown to produce a net warming effect in some circumstances. However, the quantification of these effects remains a scientific challenge as the radiative effects occur at small scales not explicitly modelled by global climate models (GCMs). Consequently, research is still ongoing focusing on the radiative effects of these clouds and how they can be reflected in GCMs. New and ongoing Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7, 2007‑13) research projects such as ECLIPSE ‘Evaluating the climate and air quality impacts of short-lived pollutants’ (currently under negotiation) and EUCLIPSE ‘EU cloud intercomparison, process study and evaluation project’(3) are systematically addressing the subject. The EU funding devoted to the FP6 projects QUANTIFY and ATTICA was EUR 8 680 000, while EUR 6 200 000 are invested in the ongoing FP7 projects. Further projects may be supported in the two remaining years of FP7.

The Commission has highlighted on several occasions the need to address the non-CO2 climate impacts of aviation. The Commission remains committed to delivering such a proposal as part of a comprehensive EU climate change policy in the future.

The Commission is not aware of any programme deliberately conveying substances into the atmosphere through aircrafts with the aim to influence climate. Geo-engineering options are currently subject of research focusing on the potential consequences and impacts, but the Commission is not aware of any operational geo-engineering programmes.

Aircraft fuels have to satisfy very precise standards as defined by international regulations. The Commission is not aware of fuel additives deliberately added to the fuel to affect weather phenomena.

Currently the Commission supports a modelling project (IMPLICC, ‘Implications and risks of engineering solar radiation to limit climate change’(4), EUR 1 000 000 EU contribution) designed to enhance our knowledge on the feasibility, impacts and implications of novel geo-engineering options. Active manipulation experiments are not part of this project. Further investigations will depend on the results of this project that will end in 2012. This research will tie in with the ongoing work of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The assessment of geoengineering options and the evaluation of their potential impacts, costs and policy implications, including governance, will form part of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), due for publication in 2013/14.

A relevant decision of the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 10 Decision X/33 Article 8(w)) invites parties to ‘ensure, in line and consistent with decision IX/16 C on ocean fertilisation and biodiversity and climate change, in the absence of science based, global, transparent and effective control and regulatory mechanisms for geo-engineering, and in accordance with the precautionary approach and Article 14 of the Convention, that no climate-related geo-engineering activities that may affect biodiversity take place, until there is an adequate scientific basis on which to justify such activities and appropriate consideration of the associated risks for the environment and biodiversity and associated social, economic and cultural impacts, with the exception of small scale scientific research studies that would be conducted in a controlled setting in accordance with Article 3 of the Convention, and only if they are justified by the need to gather specific scientific data and are subject to a thorough prior assessment of the potential impacts on the environment’.

All the Member States of the EU are parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, as is the Union. Each party is responsible for its own compliance with that decision or any other decision of the Conference of the Parties.

(1) http://www.pa.op.dlr.de/quantify/ (2) http://www.pa.op.dlr.de/attica/ (3) http://www.euclipse.eu/ (4) http://implicc.zmaw.de/