Who's flying? the spatial distribution of aviation emissions in Great Britain

International agreement has not been reached on how to divide the responsibility for the emissions produced from international aviation to individual countries. This in turn has led to difficulties in attributing all aviation emissions to subnational inventories. To achieve CO₂- equivalent stabilization targets, all sources of emissions must be taken into account. A relatively minor source today may grow to become a major contributor in the future. Subnational administrations are key to the delivery of emissions reduction; therefore, the inclusion of aviation within their baseline is important to ensure reductions are commensurate with the avoidance of dangerous climate change. This article quantifies CO₂ emissions from aviation that could be attributed to the UK devolved administrations and regions, using the current standard methodology and a range of alternative apportionment methods. The background and rationale to the apportionment methods chosen are published elsewhere. Here, the focus is on the application of the selected methods to allocate aviation emissions to subnational administrations in order to compare the geographic distribution of aviation emissions across Great Britain when using different approaches. The results demonstrate the impact that the location of an airport makes to its region's aviation emissions profile and the distribution of aviation users in Great Britain, providing an indication of how different regions and devolved administrations could most appropriately support the delivery of emission reductions from this sector. © 2011 Future Science Ltd.