Airlines need to act quickly to cut carbon emissions or risk being “hammered” by taxation, senior aviation figures have warned.
Pittsburgh airport chief executive Christina Cassotis told the Capa Centre for Aviation summit: “If we don’t demonstrate what we’re doing, we’ll get taxed, we’ll have less to invest and fewer people will fly.”
She warned: “We are going to get hammered on this. If we don’t earn our right to grow, we will lose our right to exist. We can get a negative feedback loop or a positive one.”
Jonathon Counsell, head of sustainability for British Airways parent IAG, said: “We shouldn’t underestimate the aviation industry’s achievement in reaching a global commitment to net-zero emissions.
“I’ve been working on this for 15 years and I’ve never been so optimistic. It’s incredible how much low-carbon technology has been developed in the past two to three years. We didn’t even know about some of these technologies three to five years ago.”
But he insisted: “We have to start getting emissions down this decade. The 2020s have to be about delivery.”
Both were responding to Cait Hewitt, policy director at the Aviation Environment Federation (AEF), who told the summit: “Airline chief executives have been telling me for a decade, ‘We get it, we’re doing it.’ Yet 2019 was a record year for aviation emissions.
“There are no zero-emission aircraft, there are no zero-emission fuels. The best means to avoid increasing emissions is to reduce long-haul flying.”
Hewitt pointed out: “Some airlines are saying, ‘We can cut emissions by using fuel generated from biowaste.’ But that is not reducing emissions. Taking carbon from landfill rather than the ground is not reducing emissions. It’s equivalent to offsetting.”
The AEF is a non-governmental organisation that holds a seat on the joint industry-government Jet Zero Council in the UK.
Iata fuel director Alexander Küper conceded the costs of decarbonisation mean “flying might become more expensive”, but he said: “I strongly disagree with people saying aviation is only 2.5% of global emissions when, for example, [online] streaming is 4%. We need to concentrate on what we do, not focus on others.”