[ad_1]
Europe could reduce CO2 emissions by one million tonnes per year by switching domestic flights to rail journeys, according to research from data intelligence provider Mabrian Technologies.
The study looks at what would happen to emissions if other EU nations followed France’s lead and banned some domestic air routes where there is a suitable high-speed rail option.
Mabrian’s report found that there 554 domestic airline routes of less than 500 kilometres in Europe, which carry around 44 million passengers annually and produce an estimated 2.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Switching this domestic airline traffic to rail services would potentially reduce carbon emissions by around 48 per cent or one million tonnes per year. Although, Mabrian admits achieving this air-to-rail switch may be “unrealistic” due to the huge costs of building the necessary rail infrastructure to enable it.
The countries that would benefit most from such a move would be Spain, Germany and France, according to Mabrian, followed by Italy and Sweden in fourth and fifth place.
But Mabrian points out that the cost of implementing the rail infrastructure to cover all these domestic routes would “require significant investment” and not all countries would have “the resources to finance it”.
Carlos Cendra, marketing director at Mabrian, added: “While this analysis may seem unrealistic or unachievable, at Mabrian we believe in demonstrating the efficiency of decisions through data.
“With this analysis, we have quantified the potential savings from taking steps in that direction. However, the context and the difficulties of this change suggest an intermediate situation in which the train gains prominence, but aircraft continue to meet part of the demand.”
[ad_2]
Source link