ELEMENTs blog

In 2021, airlines, manufacturers, air navigation service providers and airports worldwide agreed on a climate protection strategy and set a specific target: global CO2 emissions in aviation are to be reduced by 50% by 2050. Various measures are being considered, including propulsion technologies using electricity or hydrogen as well as sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) to reduce carbon emissions from aviation.

We speak to Dr Craig Smeaton, lecturer in physical geography at the University of St Andrews, about his research into blue carbon storage and it's implications for climate change research.

In order to understand the global warming, scientists around the world are researching the cycle of greenhouse gases. They are seeking methods through which to decode the complex climate system and better predict the reaction to sustained emissions on Earth. One of these methods is to look back at the past. Very far back in history: over more than one million years. The only direct information source available to them is drilled ice cores from Antarctica.