United States

Aviation CO₂ in the national greenhouse gas inventory

In 2022, domestic aviation in the United States emitted 166,378 thousand tonnes of CO₂, and fuel sold for international flights another 66,646 thousand tonnes, according to the US EPA Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks.

EPA publishes megatonnes; shown here in thousand tonnes so the US and European countries share one scale. International = commercial + military bunker fuel. The EPA data explorer runs one edition behind the printed report.

US EPA — Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks

Air pollutants at airports (EPA estimate)

Across 12,711 airport sites in the United States, the US EPA estimated 132,930 tonnes of NOₓ from airport activity in 2023, according to the National Emissions Inventory.

Self-computed: sum of every airport site in the inventory for that year. Site coverage changes between editions, so the totals are not a trend. The inventory is published every three years. Coverage changes between editions (about 19,300 airport sites in 2017, 6,000 in 2020, 12,700 in 2023), 2020 reflects the pandemic drop in traffic, and EPA updates its aircraft model between editions — so the columns are not a trend (Los Angeles: 3,562 tonnes of NOₓ in 2017, 8,810 in 2023). CO₂ is only reported for some sites in 2017, for all sites in 2020, and not at all in 2023. EPA publishes US customary units; converted here to metric tonnes (× 0.907) and, for lead, kilograms.

Highest NOₓ estimates, 2023

US EPA — National Emissions Inventory