While aviation delivers significant economic and social benefits, it also generates negative impacts on people and the environment through noise and emissions. Local impacts, such as changes to air quality and annoyance caused by aircraft noise, are associated with long-term public health issues. At a global level, aviation releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change.
Progress towards addressing these issues is underway, being driven by Government, the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), industry and other relevant and impacted stakeholders. It is therefore essential to have accurate and up-to-date information to measure progress and ensure that Government policy and industry action is delivering the changes needed.
The CAA has a duty to publish a triennial environmental review of the UK aviation industry (Part IV of Article 87 of UK Regulation (EU) 2018/1139, as retained (and amended in UK domestic law) under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018).We meet this duty by publishing the UK Aviation Environmental Review (AER) which provides an objective, data-driven account of the state of environmental protection relating to civil aviation in the UK. The first AER was published in 2023 (CAP2620).
The UK Aviation Environmental Review 2025 (AER 2025) was published on 11 December 2025:
- Our latest analysis can be accessed here: UK Aviation Environmental Review 2025;
- Additional background information on the impact of aviation on climate change , noise and air quality , as well as supporting information, is directly accessible from our website.
AER 2025 offers a greater level of detail than the previous edition, acting as a stepping stone for future iterations. It will support our ambition, as stated in the AER Roadmap (CAP3153), to deliver insights on the impact of UK civil aviation on the environment that are more comprehensive, more granular, and more easily accessible.