Ryanair enters top-10 polluter list in Europe

Bloomberg

Ryanair Holdings Plc was one of the 10 biggest polluters in Europe last year, a first for a company that doesn’t run coal-fired power plants.
That’s the conclusion of analysis of European Union carbon emissions data undertaken by Transport & Environment, a Brussels-based research group. The group found Ryanair’s carbon dioxide emissions rose 6.9 percent last year.
The findings underscore the airline industry’s rising contribution to the greenhouse gases blamed for damaging the atmosphere. Pollution from airlines has risen by about two-thirds since 2005 and is forecast to keep rising as flying becomes more affordable. That puts the industry on course to become the single-biggest emitter within three decades. Other industries are managing to cut their output of harmful substances.
Ryanair was ninth on the list of top polluters in Europe. The remaining slots in the top 10 were taken by utilities that generate electricity from coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel.
In a statement, Ryanair said it “is Europe’s greenest & cleanest airline” and that “passengers travelling on Ryanair have the lowest CO2 emissions per kilometre travelled than any other airline.”