Aviation Professionals Call For A New Flight Plan On Emissions

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Last Updated on: 6th May 2025, 10:33 am

It’s easy to understand why getting an airplane that weighs over 200,000 pounds off the ground and then flying through the air for a thousand miles or more burns a lot of Jet A fuel, which is basically a highly refined version of kerosene. Every fossil fuel creates carbon dioxide when burned. The aviation industry is unique in that most of its emissions are injected high into the upper atmosphere above 30,000 feet.

There has been a lot written about sustainable aircraft fuel (SAF) in the past few years, fuels that are supposed to burn cleaner so that less carbon dioxide is emitted from each flight. While it is technically possible to make SAFs, they are more expensive than Jet A. In an industry that measures profitability in fractions of a penny per passenger-mile, any extra cost is to be avoided if at all possible. While making a flight or two using SAF is good PR, it doesn’t have much impact on total emissions from the aviation industry.

CleanTechnica readers understand the problem is that the weaponized version of capitalism in vogue today assigns no value to the pollution that burning fossil fuels creates. In fact, some deep thinkers in the MAGAsphere say with a straight face that carbon dioxide is a good thing because it is an essential part of the photosynthesis process that is the source of all life on Earth. What they fail to understand is that water is also a good thing, but when it gets deep enough to prevent people from breathing it becomes deadly.

Call Aviation To Action

A newly formed group of aviation professionals who call themselves Call Aviation To Action sees danger ahead. Why? Because the number of people flying commercially is projected to double by 2042. On its website, the group says, “We are a group of current and former aviation professionals calling for courageous leadership in aviation to decisively act on our industry’s growing contribution to climate change. We are deeply concerned that if aviation does not take adequate action to change course, our industry will face crisis soon. Rather, we prefer to make the jump, set a new course and take the opportunity to fundamentally transform aviation to fit a livable planet.”

“Flying causes more CO2 emissions than any other form of transport per mile and is dominated by rich passengers, with 1 percent of the world’s population responsible for 50 percent of aviation emissions,” The Guardian reports. The industry’s climate plans are rated “critically insufficient” by Climate Action Tracker. Aviation emissions are excluded from consideration under the terms of the Paris Climate Accords because, like emissions from the maritime industry, those emissions are spread all around the world and cannot be definitely assigned to any one nation. Currently, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which is part of the United Nations, is responsible for addressing airline emissions.

Karel Bockstael is a co-founder of CATA. He served as the vice president of sustainability for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines until 2022. He told The Guardian recently, “My view is ICAO have been failing dramatically on that responsibility, because the only thing it came up with after eight years of discussion is the CORSIA scheme, which is nothing more than carbon offsets for the growth of aviation above a certain threshold, exporting your problem to another industry.” The CORSIA (Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation) plan has been criticized as “unambitious and problematic” and has yet to require any airline to use a carbon credit.

ICOA describes CORSIA as, “The first global market-based scheme that applies to a sector. It complements other aviation in-sector emissions reductions efforts such as technological innovations, operational improvements and sustainable aviation fuels to meet the ICAO aspirational goal of carbon neutral growth,” but in 2023, the CEO of Qatar Airways called the aviation industry’s emissions goals little more than a “PR exercise.” That’s hardly a comforting thought.

More Flights, More Pollution

“The absolute impact of aviation is still on a pathway up despite all the longer term aspirations of ICAO [of net zero by 2050]. If we do not act, by 2050 aviation emissions will be about a quarter of all human-caused emissions. That will be really a very shameful position. We love the magic of flying but we foresee it being destroyed. That’s what we want to prevent. We hope our initiative will help a really big group of aviation professionals to speak up, because we think they’re the silent majority. We need to break the silence and encourage our industry leaders to become part of this transition,” Bockstael said.

Call Aviation To Action said the industry should set targets for absolute emissions cuts in line with science-based CO2 budgets and stop “lobbying against climate policies.” Specifically, the group suggests the aviation industry needs to “recognize carbon budgets, set a carbon budget for aviation (considering a fair distribution of the carbon budget across the world’s population) and bring companies’ strategic plans in line with these carbon budgets.

“We need road maps that are aligned to these carbon budgets and that include short term intermediate targets. Short term targets are important not only because they are in the span of control and the time in office of current leadership teams, but also because delayed action makes the problem harder to tackle.”

The industry should also acknowledge that managing global demand for flights in a fair way is part of the solution, the group said. While the cost of emissions reduction technologies would increase the price of flying, other measures, such as flight or carbon taxes, would keep passenger numbers at sustainable levels. Such constraints on demand must be fair, offer equitable access to flying in developing countries, and address heavy frequent flyers in rich nations. These actions have also been advocated for use in other high emissions industries but have yet to gain traction in the political sphere.

Finlay Asher, an aerospace engineer and member of Safe Landing, told The Guardian’s Damian Carrington, “As an engineer, what really excites me is that the Call Aviation to Action proposals would lead to a new golden age of innovation. Our industry is in need of an upgrade — new aircraft designs, new forms of zero carbon power, and new airport layouts to support these. The research, development, and operation of this new air transport system will not only create more jobs but also make flying greener, cleaner, quieter, and more accessible to society.”

Freedom

The idea of placing any limitations on human activity is anathema to many right wing groups, who say freedom is paramount, but as Janis Joplin taught us, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” If the world is unsuccessful at reining in carbon emissions, humanity will soon achieve total, absolute freedom — otherwise known as extinction.