Charting a vision for environmental reporting in aviation

Aviation brings many benefits, from connecting people and businesses to supporting global trade and tourism. But it also has significant impacts on the environment which the UK Government and aviation industry are committed to addressing. To make real progress, tracking environmental performance is essential—this not only helps monitor improvements but also empowers consumers to make informed choices.

Our roadmap sets out the work we intend to do over the coming years to help us better report the impact of UK aviation on the environment. We’ll soon deploy our brand-new database, enabling us to analyse emissions from aircraft more effectively. This represents a concrete first step towards publishing our improved, and now annual, UK Aviation Environmental Review (AER). 

The journey so far

As the UK’s aviation regulator, we have an obligation to report on and support improvements to aviation’s environmental impact. We report this through the AER, last published in 2023.

Last year we consulted on the ambition and aims for the AER. Feedback showed support for broadening our ability to monitor climate change, noise and air quality. There was also strong backing for our proposals to look at more emission sources and include areas not previously covered, such as biodiversity.

Research keeps refining our understanding of these issues, calling for more accurate or even new metrics. Measuring the effectiveness of new policies requires flexibility in our monitoring. The AER roadmap is therefore bound to change as new advances, and hopefully opportunities, arise. 

A path to the future

Our newly launched roadmap offers direction while acknowledging the uncertainty that lies ahead.

To better track the industry’s progress towards Net Zero as well as its wider impact on noise and air quality, we're making this reporting more regular, more granular and more robust.

The enhancements to the AER signposted in this roadmap will drive positive change by assessing and evaluating the effectiveness of Government policy, industry actions and our activities in meeting sustainability targets, alongside highlighting where policy needs to go further.

A foundation for better data

Over the coming years, our work will drive improvements by:

• Enhancing the evidence base

  • Using our emissions database to report sector greenhouse gas emissions faster.
  • Expanding the number of airports included within our noise analyses.
  • Reporting on air quality around airports. 

• Breaking down the data

  • Separating out environmental information for more detailed analyses.
  • Presenting data on greenhouse gas emissions emitted from flights departing, arriving and overflying the UK.

• Making it clearer

  • Creating a dedicated AER area on our website resulting in a more interactive experience.
  • Presenting environmental information so it is easier for everyone to understand.

Meeting the challenge

This roadmap offers a jumping off point for the years to come. It sets out our ambition to provide comprehensive and accessible data, supporting our goal for the AER to remain a trustworthy and valuable source of insights on the industry’s environmental performance.

Public interest in the impact of aviation has never been higher. By sharing our vision for advancing environmental reporting, we aim to empower the UK aviation sector to lead the way toward a more sustainable future.