8 Cost of emissions

Release

8.1 EUROCONTROL recommended values

The data provided in the following sub-sections show estimations of the cost of CO₂ and other aircraft pollutants released by the combustion of aviation fuel. The data in the tables below comes from the EC DG MOVE Handbook on the external costs of transport.[1]

8.1.1 Air pollution

According to the Handbook on the External Costs of Transport, for air pollution costs, the marginal costs are virtually equal to the average costs. This is due to the fact that the dose-response relationships between the emissions of air pollutants and health effects are nearly linear.

Table 8.1: Marginal air pollution costs of aviation

Distance (km)	Emissions class	Example of aircraft type	Cost per LTO^1,2	Cost per pax km²	Cost per pax²
Short-haul
500	Low	Bombardier CRJ900	€120	€0.33	€1.68
500	High	Embraer 170	€162	€0.36	€1.80
Medium-haul
1,500	Low	Airbus 320	€196	€0.08	€1.32
1,500	High	Boeing 737	€219	€0.13	€1.87
3,000	Low	Airbus 320	€260	€0.06	€1.74
3,000	High	Boeing 737	€290	€0.08	€2.48
Long-haul
5,000	Low	Airbus 340	€595	€0.04	€2.01
5,000	High	Boeing 777	€987	€0.05	€2.28
15,000	Low	Airbus 340	€843	€0.02	€2.86
15,000	High	Boeing 777	€1,397	€0.02	€3.22
Source: European Commission (2019), Handbook on the external costs of transport
¹ LTO stands for Landing and Take-Off Cycle
² The monetary values are adjusted to 2022 prices according to inflation

8.1.2 Climate change

One of the approaches to monetise the climate change costs is to estimate the CO₂ cost avoidance, in compliance with the provisions of Paris Climate Agreement. Table 8.2 provides an estimate of CO₂ equivalent cost avoidance for short and medium term.

Table 8.2: Climate change avoidance costs in euros per tonne of CO₂ equivalent

	Low¹	Medium¹	High¹
Short and medium run (up to 2030)	€71	€119	€224
Long run (from 2040 to 2060)	€185	€319	€590
Source: European Commission (2019), Handbook on the external costs of transport
¹ The values originate from Table 23 of the Handbook on the external costs of carbon and are adjusted from 2019 to 2022 prices according to inflation

8.1.3 Other possible values

The well-to-tank eemission costs represent the costs linked to the production of all different types of energy sources, which leads to emissions and other externalities. It includes the extraction of energy, processing, transport, and transmission, building of energy plants, etc.

Table 8.3 presents the estimated cost of well-to-tank emissions from aviation for 33 EU airports selected for the analysis, as well as its estimated split per passenger km and per passenger.

Table 8.3: Total and average well-to-tank costs for aviation for 33 selected EU airports

	Total cost (bn €)¹	€-cents per pkm¹	€-cents per pax¹
Short-haul (< 1,500 km)	€1.1	€1.2	€6.6
Medium-haul (1,500 km > 5,000 km)	€2.4	€0.8	€14.4
Long-haul (> 5,000 km)	€6.6	€1.0	€80.6
Source: European Commission (2019), Handbook on the external costs of transport
¹ The values originate from Table 51 of the Handbook on the external costs of carbon and are adjusted from 2019 to 2022 prices according to inflation

Table 8.4 presents the damage cost factors used for calculation of the emissions impacts on health and other effects. The prices are expressed in euros per kg of emission and covers all modes of transport except maritime.

Table 8.4: Well-to-tank air pollution costs. Damage cost estimates for EU27+UK

	NOx¹	NMVOC¹	SO2¹	PM2.5 (exhaust)¹
EU27+UK	€12.9	€1.4	€12.9	€23.0
Source: European Commission (2019), Handbook on the external costs of transport
¹ The values originate from Table 14 of the Handbook on the external costs of carbon and are adjusted from 2016 to 2022 prices according to inflation

8.2 Further reading

Below are listed some sources that may be interesting to consult in the frame of this topic:

EUROCONTROL (2022), European Environmental Report [2]
European Commission Climate Action [3]
UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) (2020), Air quality damage cost update 2020 [4]

8.3 When to use the input?

This input is recommended for use in assessments focussing on the wider cost/impact of the emissions released in aviation.

8.5 References

[1]

European Commission DG MOVE, “Handbook on the external costs of transport,” 2019 [Online]. Available: https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/9781f65f-8448-11ea-bf12-01aa75ed71a1

[2]

EUROCONTROL, EASA, EU, “European Aviation Environmental Report 2022,” Sep. 2022 [Online]. Available: https://www.eurocontrol.int/publication/european-aviation-environmental-report-2022

[3]

European Commission, “European Commission Climate Action.” [Online]. Available: https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/ets/auctioning_en

[4]

DEFRA, Air quality damage cost update 2020. 2020 [Online]. Available: https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/library/reports?report_id=1006