With Canada lagging far behind Europe and the United Kingdom in tackling carbon pollution from aviation, the countryโs upcoming 10-year climate plan for the sector must be developed with public input and enforce a 30% emissions reduction target by 2030, climate advocates say.
โCanada has given its aviation industry a free ride on climate change for too long,โย writeย Lyn Adamson, co-chair of ClimateFast and Joe Vipond, president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) in a recent op-ed for the Ottawa Citizen.
They add that Canadaโs 2012 action plan for aviation โwas developed solely with the airline sector, did not require any reductions in climate emissions until 2050, has no credible plan to do so, and has allowed emissions from that sector to increase by 35%.โ
Due in September, the updated plan is โonce againย being developedย without public consultation,โ they write, raising concerns it will fail to reduce emissions from the fastest-growing source of climate pollution in Canada.
The David Suzuki Foundation has aย pre-written letterย urging federal transport and environment ministers Omar Alghabra and Steven Guilbeault to mandate a reduction in aviation emissions.
Meanwhile, the global aviation industry is growing adept at paying lip service to the need to cut emissions, while focusing its real efforts on the ongoing turbulence of post-pandemic supply and demand problems,ย writesย the New York Times. The sector has made innumerable concerted, ongoing, and self-interested efforts toย undermineย or delay efforts to reduce emissions.
In Canada, โemissions from Canadian airlines increased by 75% between 2005 and 2019 to over 22 million tonnes a year; equivalent to the emissions from five million passenger vehicles,โ Adamson and Vipond say.
โMore than half of global aviation emissions are produced by 1% of super-emittersโpeople who fly monthly or take more than three long-haul flights a year,โ they add, while โabout 90% of the worldโs populationโincluding the vast majority of people in developing countries most harmed by climate changeโhardly ever fly.โ
Failing to hold the Canadian aviation industry responsible for its emissions has national and international consequences, said Doris Greenspun, CEO of the Registered Nursesโ Association of Ontario, in a ClimateFast news release. โEvery sector of our society must be transformed if we are to preserve a livable planet for our children. Air transportation is no exception.โ
โThat is why more than 30 health, environmental, faith-based, and youth groups are calling upon the federal government to ensure that its new action plan for aviation emissions halts the growth of emissions from the airline industry,โ write Adamson and Vipond.
Canada has given its aviation industry a free ride on climate change for too long.
-Lyn Adamson, co-chair of ClimateFast and Joe Vipond, president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment
While Canada has no 2030 airline targets, Denmark has committed to achieving 100% fossil-fuel-free domestic flights by 2030, while the Netherlands plans to reduce emissions to 2005 levels by the decadeโs end, the op ed states. France is banning short-haul flights, while the UK has explored a โfrequent flyerโ tax.
But Carbon Brief recentlyย reportedย that the UK may not be the best model to consider for aviation emissions planning. The governmentโs breezily named โJet Zeroโ strategy is meant to address what its own Climate Change Committee (CCC) has repeatedly warned is a critical gap in its national climate strategy.
Though Jet Zero pledges net-zero aviation by 2050, the promise will depend on as-yet uncertain โbreakthroughsโ in sustainable aviation fuels and zero-emissions aircraft, Carbon Brief explains.
And while electric planes may soon be flying in airspace near you, Canary Mediaย writes, their impact on emissions will be โminusculeโ: battery limitations mean these planes will not be able to replace the heavy,ย long-range aircraftย that produce the โvast majorityโ of aviation emissions.
In the absence of real technological breakthroughs, UK aviation emissions will rise by 14 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) from 2018 levels by 2050 under Jet Zero, with passenger numbers increasing 70% by 2050 from 2021 levels.
Even if the promised tech breakthroughs held true, sector emissions would still stand at 19 megatonnes of CO2e in 2050, emissions that would need to be mechanically removed from the atmosphere for the UK to meet its net-zero target.
But โremoval technologies are still in their infancy, and there is uncertainty about whether they will scale up sufficiently,โ Carbon Brief says.
The UKโs aviation strategy alsp stands firmly opposed to efforts to reduce flight demand or airport expansion. โOur approach for decarbonizing aviation will focus on the rapid development of technologies,โ the Jet Zero authors say. โOur analysis shows that the sector can achieve jet zero without the government needing to intervene directly to limit aviation growth.โ
That approach runs directly counter to CCC recommendations, notes Carbon Brief: โUnder the CCCโs central pathway for reaching net-zero by 2050, outlined in its Sixth Carbon Budget report, aviation demand would be limited to growth of no more than 25% by 2050, when compared to 2018 levels.โ
This article is republished fromย The Energy Mix. Read theย original article.