Carbon tax policy-induced air travel carbon emission reduction and biofuel usage in China

Carbon emissions in air travel have attracted widespread attention with the fast development of the aviation sector. Currently, biofuel usage has the potential to curb these emissions due to the bottleneck of other aircraft emission reduction technologies. This paper studies carbon tax policy-induced air travel carbon emission reduction and biofuel usage in China considering the interactive relationship between an authority and multiple airlines by a bi-level model and an interactive solution approach. Then a case study based on airlines from southern China's Sichuan Province is conducted to explore useful insights, with scenario analyses being performed. The computational results indicate that the policy could be useful for air travel carbon emission reduction and biofuel usage improvement in China. These results and analyses provide insights to the authority for the tradeoffs between policy equity and carbon emissions reduction effectiveness, and airlines for profitability.

Automated summary

This paper investigates the impact of carbon tax policy on carbon emissions and biofuel usage in air travel in China. The study provides useful insights through a case study, highlighting the tradeoff between policy equity and carbon emissions reduction effectiveness for the authority and profitability for airlines.