CATE has a global reputation for aviation-related research and is leading on the environmental impacts of the exponential growth of air travel.Its work embraces the effects of aircraft emissions on global climate change and local air quality, the noise and community impacts of aviation and the broader sustainability and development issues related to air transport and airports.
The Centre also provides science and related policy-based technical advice to government and regulatory authorities, at a national and global level. CATE professors are among the lead authors on the climate projections of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. They also provide scientific analysis on how aviation and its role in the European Emissions Trading Scheme.
CATE has attracted £8.5 million from research grants and contracts since 2001 including from the EPSRC, UK government and the European Union.
CATE houses the Omega Project, a network of UK based research centres (Cambridge, Oxford, Cranfield and others) focussed on providing scientific data for sustainable solutions to growth in the aviation industry.