Governments “will clamp down” on aviation if the industry does not reduce its carbon emissions, but the sector needs government support to switch to Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF).
That is according to Airlines UK chief executive Tim Alderslade who told Abta’s Travel Convention in Marrakech: “Without SAF we won’t get to net zero by 2050.”
Alderslade noted aviation accounts for about 2.5% of global CO2 emissions at present but said that “as other sectors decrease [CO2 emissions], we will increase proportionally”.
He warned: “Aviation gets a lot of media attention and governments will start to clamp down if we don’t get on top of this.”
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Yet he suggested airlines sustainability commitments “really shone through” during the pandemic arguing: “Despite losing tens of billions of pounds airlines were saying ‘We’ll return to normal but we’ll get shut down by government if we don’t commit to net zero.”
Alderslade insisted: “There are possibilities for the UK to be a world leader on SAF. But we’re not going to be unless the government provides incentives.
“The problem with SAF is there is no market price and no SAF industry in the UK. We need price incentives.”
He said “the jury is still out” on the new government’s level of commitment to action on climate change. But Alderslade argued-: “We’ll say to the government ‘These are the benefits if you do this.’
“SAF could mean thousands of jobs on Humberside, on Teesside and in South Wales, with a huge potential for export. Our argument needs to be couched in terms of growth.”
Abta director of industry relations Susan Deer agreed but argued: “Decarbonisation is not just about transport but looking at the whole supply chain, and when we talk about action on sustainability, it’s not just about decarbonisation, it’s also about communities.”
She acknowledged “smaller businesses find the whole thing overwhelming”. But she noted progress in destinations saying: “There was a time when destinations would publish a sustainability plan but you would not see anything come of it. Now we see destinations telling the industry what projects they are engaged in.”
Deer insisted: “Working in collaboration and not treating sustainability as a competitive advantage means we’ll move faster.”
EasyJet Holidays customer and operations director Matt Callaghan denied there was a conflict between “cheap holidays” and sustainable trips and said: “We’re trying to make sustainability mainstream.
“Sustainable choices are becoming more important to consumers and the big players need to step up.”
He highlighted an easyJet Holidays partnership with Oxford University and launch of a year-long project on food-waste reduction in Tenerife using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to monitor the waste in properties.
Jose Puyana, regional director for Europe at Colombian international tourism agency ProColombia noted Colombia is among the world’s most bio-diverse countries and said: “We have a huge responsibility.
“We are committed to fighting climate change. We know it’s something we need to do.”
He said: “Tour operators expect destinations to get their act together. In our case the travel industry is the second most-important source of revenue. We need to show we are acting.”
More: Abta and Deloitte launch Climate Action Guidebook
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