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SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — Google it just became “greener”.
A new search feature, launched Wednesday, tells users which flights have lower carbon emissions, giving them the ability to choose flights based on carbon emissions, just like price or number of stops.
A basic flight search will give an estimate of how many kilograms of carbon dioxide the flight will emit from start to finish. Users can prioritize their searches by emissions, as well as by price if they wish. Flights with emissions below the median are highlighted in green.
Google He said the estimates are a combination of data from the European Environment Agency and flight-specific information it receives from airlines and other providers. This data may include an aircraft’s age, model and configuration, the speed and altitude at which it is flying, and the distance between the flight’s departure and destination.
For some flights, forecasts may not be available due to lack of data or other incomplete information on some aircraft, Google said. The company added that forecasts have yet to take into account which direction the plane is heading — a potentially important factor if it’s flying on or off the jet stream, or whether the flight uses biofuels or other alternatives.
Using the new vehicle, the least polluting flights from the Washington DC area to Chicago are all United flights using Boeing 737s. 128 kilograms of carbon dioxide falls 21% below the median. An American Airlines flight from San Francisco to New York on another Boeing 737 with a stop in Dallas emits 535 kilograms of carbon dioxide, 9% less than the median for that route.
Multiple stops can often result in an increase in emissions, but this is not always the case. Non-stop flights are not always less polluting, especially on longer routes. Google He says that a more fuel-efficient aircraft may emit fewer emissions on a multi-stop journey than an older aircraft on a continuous route.
Airplanes make up a small fraction of climate-changing emissions – around 2% to 3% – but their share is growing rapidly and is expected to roughly triple by mid-century with global growth in travel.
Airline trade group Airlines for America says US carriers have more than doubled the fuel efficiency of their fleets since 1978 and are planning further reductions in carbon emissions. But the independent International Council for Clean Transport says passenger traffic is growing about four times faster than fuel efficiency, resulting in a 33% increase in emissions between 2013 and 2019.
The new emission vehicle is as follows GoogleLast month, it introduced a way for people to find “eco-certified” hotels. Also on Wednesday, Google introduced technology that enables drivers to find more fuel-efficient routes. Google maps and GoogleUpgrades to help people find energy from the grid during times of the day when sources like the Nest thermostat, wind and solar power are cleaner.
New features are part of a sustainability initiative Google CEO Sundar Pichai emphasized on Wednesday.
“Climate change is no longer a distant threat – it’s increasingly local and personal,” Pichai said in a blog post. “We need urgent and meaningful solutions to meet this urgent challenge,” he said, adding that the company is committed to running its data centers and campuses on carbon-neutral energy by 2030.
GoogleOwned by Alphabet Inc., it is headquartered in Mountain View, California.
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