Major airlines say they're acting on climate change. Are they doing enough?
If youre a traveller who cares about reducing your carbon footprint, are some airlines better to fly with than others? Several of the worlds major airlines have announced plans to become carbon neutral, while others are trialling new aviation fuels. But are any of their climate initiatives making much difference? Those were the questions we set out to answer a year ago, by analysing what the worlds largest 58 airlines which fly 70 per cent of the total available seat-kilometres are doing to live up to their promises to cut their climate impact. The good news? Some airlines are taking positive steps. The bad news? When you compare whats being done against the continued growth in emissions, even the best airlines are not doing anywhere near enough. READ MORE: * Qantas pledges zero net carbon emissions by 2050 * Feeling flight shame? Try quitting air travel and catch a sail boat * 'Flight shame' a threat to airlines as flyers worry about their carbon emissions * 'The world's least unsustainable airline': Air New Zealand's climate dilemma More efficient flights still drive up emissions Our research found three-quarters of the worlds biggest airlines showed improvements in carbon efficiency measured as carbon dioxide per available seat. But thats not the same as cutting emissions overall . One good example was the Spanish flag carrier Iberia, which reduced emissions per seat by about 6 per cent in 2017, but increased absolute emissions by 7 per cent. For 2018, compared with 2017, the collective impact of all the climate measures being undertaken by the 58 biggest airlines amounted to an improvement of 1 per cent. This falls short of the industrys goal of achieving a 1.5 per cent increase in efficiency. And the improvements were more than wiped out by the industrys overall 5.2 per cent annual increase in emissions. This challenge is even clearer when you look slightly further back. Industry figures show global airlines produced 733 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2014. Falling fares and more people around wanting to fly saw airline emissions rise 23 per cent in just five years. What are the airlines doing? Airlines reported climate initiatives across 22 areas, with the most common involving fleet renewal, engine efficiency, weight reductions and flight path optimisation. Examples in our paper include: Nineteen of the 58 large airlines I examined invest in alternative fuels. But the scale of their research and development programmes, and use of alternative fuels, remains tiny. As an example, for Earth Day 2018 Air Canada announced a 160-tonne emissions saving from blending 230,000 litres of biojet fuel into 22 domestic flights. How much fuel was that? Not even enough to fill the more than 300,000-litre capacity of just one A380 plane. Carbon neutral promises Some airlines, including Qantas, are aiming to be carbon neutral by 2050 . While that wont be easy, Qantas is at least starting with better climate reporting; its one of only eight airlines addressing its carbon risk through the systematic Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures process. About half of the major airlines engage in carbon offsetting, but only 13 provide information on measurable impacts. These include Air New Zealand, with its FlyNeutral programme to help restore native forest in New Zealand. That lack of detail means the integrity of many offset schemes is questionable. And even if properly managed, offsets still avoid the fact that we cant make deep carbon cuts if we keep flying at current rates. What airlines and governments need to do Our research shows major airlines climate efforts are achieving nowhere near enough. To decrease aviation emissions, three major changes are urgently needed. All airlines need to implement all measures across the 22 categories covered in our report to reap any possible gain in efficiency. Far more research is needed to develop alternative aviation fuels that genuinely cut emissions. Given what weve seen so far, these are unlikely to be biofuels. E-fuels liquid fuels derived from carbon dioxide and hydrogen may provide such a solution, but there are challenges ahead, including high costs. Governments can and some European countries do impose carbon taxes and then invest into lower carbon alternatives. They can also provide incentives to develop new fuels and alternative infrastructure, such as rail or electric planes for shorter trips. How you can make a difference Our research paper was released late last year, at a World Travel and Tourism Council event linked to the Madrid climate summit . Activist Greta Thunberg famously sailed around the world to be there, rather than flying. Higher-income travellers from around the world have had a disproportionately large impact in driving up aviation emissions. This means that all of us who are privileged enough to fly, for work or pleasure, have a role to play too, by: To really make an impact, far more of us need to do all three. Susanne Becken is a Professor of Sustainable Tourism and Director, Griffith Institute for Tourism, Griffith University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .