Prime minister Boris Johnson joined ministers and representatives of airlines and airports on Wednesday for the first meeting of the government’s Jet Zero Council.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps and business and energy secretary Alok Sharma chaired the meeting of the new body, tasked with making net-zero emissions possible for future flights.
Shapps said on Twitter: “Our aim is to work with aviation & aerospace to create the world’s first ZERO carbon airliner. Delighted to have been joined by @BorisJohnson to open the session.”
Ahead of the online meeting, Johnson announced £350 million is being made available to cut emissions in heavy industry and “drive economic recovery from coronavirus”.
The funding aims to cut carbon emissions as the government bids to tackle climate change.
Johnson said: “We’ve made great strides towards our net zero target over the last year, but it’s more important than ever that we keep up the pace of change to fuel a green, sustainable recovery as we rebuild from the pandemic.
“That’s why we’re backing cutting-edge research to cut costs and carbon across our great British industries, and even paving the way for the first ever zero-emission long-haul passenger flight – so that our green ambitions remain sky-high as we build back better for both our people and our planet.”
Shapps added: “The Jet Zero Council is a huge step forward in making change – as we push forward with innovative technologies such as sustainable fuels and eventually fully electric planes, we will achieve guilt-free flying and boost sustainability for years to come.”
Strategies to cut carbon could include using new synthetic aviation fuels as a clean substitute for fossil jet fuel, and eventually the development of electric planes.
Charlie Cornish, group chief of Manchester Airports Group – which owns Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands airports – said: “[The] first meeting of the Jet Zero Council is a real and important milestone on the road to the UK aviation industry becoming net zero carbon by 2050.
“[It] demonstrated the progress that is being made in developing new technologies and new sustainable fuels, and the potential for government and industry to work together to make the UK a world leader in this area.
“For our part, MAG has been a leader in making air travel more sustainable and we were the first airport operator in the UK to achieve carbon-neutral status across all our operations.
“Through the Jet Zero Council, government and the aviation industry will produce a framework which will set out how we can decarbonise aviation.
“This comes following the industry’s own commitment and road map to reaching full net zero carbon by 2050, which was published earlier in the year. We all know that this is a challenging target but one we can achieve by working collaboratively with government.”
Taking part were chief executives of airlines such as Virgin Atlantic and easyJet, as well as bosses from Tui, Heathrow and Manchester Airports Group, plus academics and other aviation experts.