Let's not buy the idea that aviation can't go to net-zero emissions by 2050 'because that would make flying too expensive'. Aviation has to go to net-zero just like everything else.
If that'd make flying expensive, so be it. If we want to reduce the costs, the only way is to get started now, e.g. by demanding a steadily growing share of zero-emission jet fuels.
Post-corona, we need to curb the growth of aviation; growth rates of 7%/year make it impossible to achieve net-zero by 2050. The higher cost of jet fuels will help, but airport expansion could be limited as well, with many side benefits.
In reducing CO2 emissions from aviation, let's not forget that its total global warming effect is 2-3 times higher than that of its CO2 emissions alone. The indirect warming effects need to be addressed as well.
https://twitter.com/Sustainable2050/status/1331490846869426176?s=19
Flying is now artificially cheap. Making aviation pay for its true cost would make it more expensive. Some people say this is unacceptable, because poor people couldn’t afford to fly anymore.
Let’s say this would make a ticket €100 more expensive, then government paying them an extra €100 per year would give them back the same access to flying as before.
Will never happen? Probably true, perhaps because their access to flying isn’t really the argument after all.
Will never happen? Probably true, perhaps because their access to flying isn’t really the argument after all.
That’s based on 1 flight per year, and most poor people don’t reach that now either. And if they’d get €100 extra, chances are that most of it wouldn’t be spent on flying.
The vast majority of flights is made by a minority of the people, and they’re not poor.
The vast majority of flights is made by a minority of the people, and they’re not poor.
NB This whole thread is not against aviation, as you can easily verify. Flying was a great invention, but we just ran into a solid boundary condition, which we failed to apply so far. Emissions have to be net-zero by 2050. That’s all.
For a further discussion on the non-CO2 global warming effect of aviation, see my discussion with Prof. @_nadineunger, atmospheric chemist and lead author of IPCC’s AR6 report, in the thread below. Thanks, Nadine!
https://twitter.com/_nadineunger/status/1335487845587447808
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