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Google will make updates to its Travel Impact Model
(TIM), a tool it created in 2022 to calculate flight emissions at the
individual passenger level.
The changes were announced by the International
Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), which serves as the secretariat of an independent advisory committee created
last summer to oversee future updates to the TIM and to ensure it
provides accurate, transparent and consistent emissions data.
Google’s TIM powers the emissions estimates on Google
Flights and, since April 2022, has been used by other members of the
Travalyst coalition, including Booking.com, Expedia and Skyscanner.
The ICCT said the updates are intended to make the
emissions model “more fully reflect the environmental impact of aviation and
help people make more sustainable choices when planning air travel.”
The updates, which will soon be reflected in
emissions estimates on any platforms using the TIM, include:
- Taking into account all six Kyoto
greenhouse gasses. The
AC agreed to expand the scope of the TIM to include all six Kyoto gases,
especially CO2, CH4 and N2O. This update means that the model will be able to
accommodate changes that include climate effects beyond just CO2 emissions, and
going forward the model outputs will be labeled as “CO2 equivalent.” - Including well-to-tank
emissions by default. Following
the decision to account for all six Kyoto gases, the AC decided that the TIM
should be expanded to reflect the climate effects resulting from the production
and transportation of aviation fuels, commonly referred to as well-to-tank
(WTT) emissions. … This update sets the stage for crediting airlines that
introduce new technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, notably
sustainable aviation fuel. - Integrating belly cargo. The AC determined that the emissions
resulting from a given flight should be apportioned over both passengers and
any belly cargo being transported. … This decision, which reflects the mass of
passenger service equipment, is an interim solution until international
standards can be aligned.
“These changes are an important step in making the TIM more comprehensive and future-proof,” said Dan Rutherford, the ICCT’s aviation director and head of the TIM secretariat. “The Advisory Committee will continue work in 2024 to provide even more consistent and transparent emissions estimates to travelers.”
Along with these
changes, the AC has agreed to prioritize research on contrails, looking at
impacts by time, region and airline and how to communicate that to consumers.
In 2022, a BBC report accused Google of intentionally
minimizing the reported environmental impact of flights because its
calculations were not comprehensive and specifically did not include contrail
impacts.
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