Climate-claims myth busted: Are any airlines really green? The Independent

Before the pandemic hit, back when you could whizz over to the Med for thirty quid, thousands of climate-conscious travellers took a no-fly pledge. Spurred on by evidence that the climate emergency is a terrifying reality, from wildfires in California to drought in Australia, the movement soon swept into the consciousness of a panicked aviation industry. As Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Air Lines, pointed out at an investor day in 2019: “Environmental stewardship is the existential threat to our future ability to grow.”

This defensive stance hits the nail on the head when it comes to aviation’s climate conundrum. Accounting for 2.4 per cent of global CO2 emissions (9 per cent in the UK), even if airlines attempt to make flying less carbon-intensive, the industry’s growth outweighs its progress. In the five years before 2020, carbon emissions from aviation shot up 32 per cent, and yet still only 5 per cent of the world’s population flies.

Rather than offering a solution, the grounding of planes during Covid-19 has demonstrated the extent of the problem. To meet the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C warming limit, we need to cut emissions in line with 2020’s reduction every year. Meanwhile, having tracked previous events that disrupted air travel, such as Sars and 9/11, experts expect aviation to be back to pre-pandemic levels within two years.

So, is there such a thing as sustainable flying? The short answer is no. Other industries are busy transferring to renewable energy, but flying remains dependent on kerosene. While this remains the case, and the number of flights continues to rise, aviation will be responsible for an increasingly large chunk of the world’s carbon emissions. 

It’s in this context that we need to scrutinise any claims from airlines that they’re “green”. But some carriers are still doing better than others.

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