Air travel to and from Jersey causes rise in emissions

INCREASED domestic flights to and from Jersey led to a surge in greenhouse gas emissions from transport in 2022, new data has revealed.

The latest annual report on the Island’s emissions, carried out by third-party UK climate-change emissions consultants Aether, found that transport remains the biggest sector for emissions, accounting for 45% of Jersey’s total in 2022.

And that figure increased from 147,539 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents in 2021 to 157,732 tonnes in 2022.

The report said: “This was driven by an increase in domestic aviation, which includes travel between the UK and other Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories.”

Emissions from waste management also increased as a result of “continued incineration of waste without energy recovery”.

However, overall the Island’s emissions were 3% lower in 2022 than in 2021, as explained in the Guide to the Jersey Greenhouse Gas Inventory.

Jersey emitted 350,532 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents in 2022, down from 360,669 in 2021. Residential emissions accounted for 22.1%, which decreased by 15%.

The report also found Jersey’s greenhouse gas emissions fell by 47% between 1990 and 2022.

The annual inventory statistics are always released two years in arrears because of the complexity of the data and the required detailed analysis, the report says.

The Island is still on its pathway to net-zero emissions by 2050, using the Carbon Neutral Roadmap to get there.