Australia’s national carrier airline Qantas Group has announced it is targeting net zero carbon emissions by 2050, promising a “massive expansion” of its green aviation efforts through plans to offset all growth in emissions from next year and invest $50 million towards developing sustainable aviation fuels.
All growth in emissions from the company’s airlines, Qantas, Jetstar, QantasLink and Qantas Freight, will be offset from 2020 onwards, the company said, including all net emissions from its plan to operate non-stop flights from the east coast of Australia to London and New York.
Moreover, the airline said it aimed to double the number of its flights that are offset by matching every Australian dollar spent by customers ticking the box to fly ‘carbon neutral’.
Currently around 10 per cent of Qantas customers booking flights online choose to offset their flights via the company’s Qantas Future Planet carbon credit program, which supports environmental conservation projects both in Australia and abroad.
Meanwhile, Qantas also said it would invest $50m over the next 10 years to help accelerate the development of sustainable aviation fuels, which it said could reduce carbon emissions from flights by around 80 per cent compared to traditional jet fuel.
While sustainable biofuel technologies are proven to work, production of greener aviation fuels is not yet at the scale required to deliver cost-competitive fuels, the company argued.
As such, Qantas said it would work with governments and private sector partners to support development of greener aviation fuels “to make it more viable and increase demand throughout the industry”.
In the meantime, Qantas said it would also continue to invest in more fuel-efficient aircraft, replacing all of its Boeing 747s by the end of next year, as well as shifting towards greener operations, such as single-engine taxiing and smarter flight planning to reduce fuel burn.
Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said the net zero announcements were among the most ambitious carbon dioxide (CO2) targets of any airline group globally, stressing the targets were “ambitious, but achievable”.
“We recognise that airlines have a responsibility to cut emissions and combat climate change,” Mr Joyce said.
“Concerns about emissions and climate change are real, but we can’t lose sight of the contribution that air travel makes to society and the economy.”
However, he argued the solution to tackling the climate impact of flying “isn’t to simply ‘fly less’ but to make it more sustainable”.
“We’re doing this because it’s the responsible thing to do, but hopefully it will also encourage more people to choose Qantas and Jetstar because of the action we’re taking,” he added.
Qantas joins IAG, the owner of British Airways, which last month became the first global airline group to set a 2050 net zero target, and pledged to offset its domestic flights from 2020.
However, the announcement came as British Airways and the wider airline industry faced criticism for engaging in a practice known as ‘fuel tankering’, which an investigation by the BBC Panorama program has allege is resulting in significantly higher emissions from flights.
The Panorama investigation cites estimates that a fifth of all European flights may partake in ‘fuel tankering’, which sees planes load up with more fuel than they need in order to avoid more expensive refuelling at certain airports.
The approach means planes are heavier than they need to be, leading to higher emissions.
In total, airlines may have generated an additional 18,000 tonnes of CO2 last year as a result of fuel tankering, which can produce cost savings of as little as just over £10 a flight, claims the BBC, which specifically names British Airways and EasyJet among the airlines engaging in the practice.
The latest developments came as Virgin Trains claimed record numbers of people are now choosing rail travel over flying between London and Scotland, a trend which it said was helping to drive down carbon emissions.
Rail travel achieved a record 35 per cent market share of travel between London and Glasgow or Edinburgh in 12 months to July 2019, up from 34 per cent the previous year. Virgin Trains alone took a 29 per cent share last year, carrying upwards of 700,000 passengers, it said.
The company also cited analysis by green transport charity Transform Scotland which estimated rail’s increased market share combined with a reduction in flights helped to slash emissions associated with travel between Glasgow and London by 17 per cent last year.
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