Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the study in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Mitigating the Climate Forcing of Aircraft Contrails by Small-Scale Diversions and Technology Adoption, published on 12 February 2020, which found a beneficial impact of altering the altitudes of some aircraft to reduce the impact of contrails on solar radiation; and whether this will affect their approach to airspace management.

The Government has made no specific assessment of the particular study referred to but takes all relevant information into account in its policy decisions.

We will be shortly consulting on a Net Zero Aviation Strategy which will set out the steps to reach net zero carbon emissions from aviation by 2050. The consultation will also consider non-CO₂ emissions and highlight the uncertainty that currently exists regarding the impact that non-CO₂ emissions, and contrails specifically, could have on the climate. We recognise that more work will need to be done to address this uncertainty and will continue to ensure that the latest scientific understanding of aviation non-CO₂ effects is used to inform our policy.