Can Air Travel Be Green?

If David Attenborough's address to world leaders at the 2018 UN climate summit is to be believed then we are "facing a man-made disaster of global scale" (Carrington, 2018). Climate change is a threat to everyone on the planet and we are at a tipping point with time running out to attempt to change the course we are on. Automobile companies are abandoning diesel vehicles and sales of electric "green" vehicles are rising exponentially year on year. Countries are investing more and more into renewable sources of energy with solar and wind farms becoming more prominent features on the horizons. What actions are being taken by our airline industries to ensure that moving forward air travel is more ethically appealing?

 

 

A typical flight from London Heathrow to New York's JFK emits around 1.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide (Timperley, 2021). This is roughly one third of the average person's yearly emissions. Burning fossil fuels is bad for the environment, but air travel is a necessary evil. World Energy in the US and Neste in Finland are two companies investing heavily in the development of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF). SAF is derived from used cooking oil and agricultural waste and it is estimated it produces an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (Gelles, 2023). In January 2023, Emirates airlines flew a Boeing 777 for 1 hour with one of its engines being powered using SAF (Bennett, 2023). It is hoped that demonstrations like this will allow future certification to approve a 100% use of these fuels as currently it must be mixed 50/50 with regular fuel. Virgin Atlantic has plans to “operate the world’s first ‘net-zero’ transatlantic flight in 2023’ with the UK government contracting them to fly a Boeing 787 from Heathrow to JFK powered solely on SAF (Elton, 2022). Trials like these will be pivotal if we are to hit the aviation industry’s net-zero carbon emissions target by 2050, and in doing so help to slow down and maybe even reverse the effects of climate change on our planet. One thing is for certain, the way we did things in the past resulted in our current predicament and action must be taken to protect this rock which we all call home.

 

 

 

 

Bennett, P. (2023, January 31). Emirates Successfully Tests Flying Boeing 777 Plane on Sustainable Jet Fuel. EcoWatch. https://www.ecowatch.com/sustainable-airplane-fuel-emirates.html

Carrington, D. (2018, December 3). David Attenborough: collapse of civlilisation is on the horizon. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/03/david-attenborough-collapse-civilisation-on-horizon-un-climate-summit

Elton, C. (2022, December 2022). World’s first ‘net-zero’ transatlantic flight scheduled for late 2023. Euronews. https://www.euronews.com/travel/2022/12/16/trailblazing-net-zero-transatlantic-flight-powered-by-cooking-oil-to-take-off-in-2023

Gelles, D. (2023, February 21). A Sudden Rush to Make Sustainable Aviation Fuel Mainstream. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/21/climate/united-sustainable-aviation-fuel.html

Timperley, J. (2021, July 29). Switching flights could slash your carbon footprint. Wired. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/airline-emissions-carbon-footprint