Blockchain-based solution to enhance carbon footprint traceability, accounting, and offsetting in the passenger aviation industry

The aviation industry's carbon emissions are forecast to rise to 22% by 2050, posing a significant challenge to the goal of achieving Net Zero Emissions by the same year. Regardless of the structural or agentic strategies implemented to reduce these emissions, ensuring effective traceability of emissions in airline operations is crucial, as it enables the development of effective mitigation measures. Existing systems fall short of effectively providing end-to-end traceability of emissions within an effective carbon accounting framework. Indirect emissions and the complexities associated with emissions tracking throughout the extended aviation sector also exacerbate carbon accounting and offsetting difficulties. In this paper, we present a blockchain-based framework to address these plausible challenges. The proposed work categorises both direct and indirect emissions under Scope 1, 2, and 3 classifications. A blockchain-based collaborative platform, also provides data transparency across all stakeholders, ensuring traceability and security in a decentralised and reliable manner. A prototype model of a blockchain-based system is therefore developed using Ethereum smart contracts. The paper presents a cost and security analysis of the system, while highlighting the challenges and opportunities for the development of sustainable aviation operations. The smart contract is made publicly available on Github for verification.