A physical metric-based framework for evaluating the climate trade-off between CO2 and contrails-The case of lowering aircraft flight trajectories

► We evaluate a generic trade-off between short- and long-lived climate effects. ► A metric-based framework is used to identify the preferable mitigation strategy. ► The assessment of a contrail mitigation strategy involves value judgements. ► The physical cost-effective GTPp(t) is not robust enough for policy implementation. ► Evaluation horizon and aviation emission type are crucial choices for resulting recommendation.