True or False: Planes

(CNN) -- True or False: Aviation's contribution to climate change is around 3 percent.

The answer is: FALSE

According to a report from the Climate Action Network Europe and the European Federation for Transport and the Environment, despite the fact that the aviation industry associations tend to always state the figure 3 percent, the real figure is between 4 percent and 9 percent globally and between 5 percent and 12 percent in the European Union.

The reason there is a discrepancy in the global numbers is because the figures often quoted refer to 2004 carbon dioxide emissions statistics -- which were 3 percent. However, once other types of pollutants are taken into consideration -- such as nitrogen oxide (which has between 2 to 5 times the climate impact or C02) that figure grows.

Furthermore the report adds, the industry often quotes figures from the 1999 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Report on Aviation which itself in parts refers to figures from 1992. Much has changed since then it adds, so the figures must reflect that:

"The rapid growth of aviation and aviation emissions means that the situation has meanwhile changed. In 2005, emissions again grew by 1 percent. Growth in C02 emissions from international aviation since 1990, the base year of the Kyoto Protocol, now stands at 83 percent".

As for the European Union's emissions, it says they are "based on a 'business as usual' scenario" based on a 2003 report which assumes low growth rates of 1.6 percent per year between 1990 and 2030.

"In reality there was 4.3 percent growth per year between 1990 and 2004". E-mail to a friend