Aviation continues to find itself under increasing pressure over its environmental impact – a trend that will only continue for the foreseeable future. We explore a key question for the sector: who should pay for aviation's decarbonisation?
Navigating the complex path to net zero aviation emissions
Aviation emissions are, effectively, hard to abate; as other transport modes or sectors are expected to decarbonise more easily, the industry faces a profound challenge to meet its self-imposed target of net zero by 2050. The task is complicated by the absence of an agreed roadmap, with many of the technologies expected to decarbonize in-flight emissions still relatively far from commercial maturity and scale.
In reality, decarbonisation may see a complex mix of technologies to tackle aviation’s many sources of emissions, each contributing according to its own timeline. Conquering this complexity will inevitably come at a significant cost. Whilst aviation yields proven economic and social benefits through its facilitation of trade, tourism and friend and family bonds, still only a small proportion of the global population flies on a regular basis, and a mere 1% of the world’s population is responsible for 50% of commercial aviation’s CO2.2 This begs a key question for a sector with notoriously poor profitability and a relatively limited pool of frequent customers: who should pay?
Who pays for aviation’s decarbonisation?
Aviation emissions are, effectively, hard to abate; as other transport modes or sectors are expected to decarbonise more easily, the industry faces a profound challenge to meet its self-imposed target of net zero by 2050. The task is complicated by the absence of an agreed roadmap, with many of the technologies expected to decarbonise in-flight emissions still relatively far from commercial maturity and scale. This begs a key question for a sector with notoriously poor profitability and a relatively limited pool of frequent customers: who should pay?
