Airline industry chiefs say 2050 net zero goal now unlikely

Iata boss Willie Walsh blames fuel suppliers, governments and aircraft makers, saying new ‘realistic timeline’ now needed

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The aviation industry’s landmark pledges to be net zero by 2050 will probably not now be achieved, airline leaders have admitted.

The collective goal to eliminate net carbon emissions was declared by global airlines only five years ago in 2021, with similar pledges made by national aviation industry leaders and governments, including in the UK, in 2020.

However, Willie Walsh , the director general of global airlines body Iata, said “hope was fading fast” and a new “realistic timeline” should be established.

Walsh – who was the chief executive of British Airways owner IAG until September 2020 – said fuel suppliers, governments and aircraft manufacturers were largely to blame for the likely failure to hit the target.

More than half of the planned decarbonisation of aviation was dependent on the development of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), with much of the rest reliant on a global emissions trading programme, Corsia, established under the aegis of the UN and its aviation body ICAO.

In a speech to delegates at the annual Iata summit in Rio de Janeiro, Walsh said that Corsia was being “undermined” by government inaction, while annual production of SAF would only reach 2.4m tonnes, or 0.8% of airline fuel needs, this year. “The goal is 65% or 500m tonnes by 2050. The gap is wide and not closing fast enough,” he said.