Aviation will not reach zero emissions target by 2050, says former head of airport in Amsterdam – 03/11/2024 – Market

The aviation industry is unlikely to meet its target of achieving zero carbon emissions by 2050, according to the former head of Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, one of Europe’s busiest.

Ruud Sondag said he feared governments in Europe would intervene to limit the industry’s growth through higher taxes or limits on flights unless it improved its environmental record.

“I think it’s important to state that the plans that the aviation industry itself has will most likely not lead to the outcome for which we all signed up in the Paris agreement,” said Sondag in an interview with the Financial Times.

“I think there is a risk that if you don’t do anything about it, politicians or judges will interfere,” he said. “In the long term, you will lose your license to operate.”

In 2015, in the Paris agreement, countries committed to limiting global temperature rise to well below 2°C and ideally to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, prompting industries to present their plans to decarbonize .

European airlines and airports agreed in 2021 to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 in a detailed roadmap that outlined how the industry believed it could leverage new technologies, such as cleaner fuels, to decarbonize while maintaining growth.

Interviewed before stepping down as head of Schiphol earlier this month, Sondag stands out as one of the few industry executives to publicly doubt these environmental goals and accept the possibility of slowing growth to cut emissions.

“I think it’s essential for society that you can fly. But social acceptance, if it’s not there, especially here in this densely populated area, you’re going to have a problem,” said Sondag.

Laurent Donceel, deputy managing director of Airlines for Europe, the industry’s EU lobby group, said aviation would “fully play its part” in contributing to Europe’s climate goals.

He said airlines were focused on technologies including new fuels or more efficient aircraft, but said measures such as carbon pricing and offset schemes would “fill any gaps” and ensure the industry achieved zero emissions.

ACI Europe, which represents the region’s airports, said its members had made “tremendous and systemic efforts” to reduce their own carbon emissions. The entity added that the European Commission, to date, has not suggested reducing flights as necessary for the industry to achieve net-zero emissions.

State-owned Schiphol Airport has come up with a plan to reduce small parts of its business, including a ban on private jets, night flights and noisier planes, in response to noise and pollution complaints.

The Dutch government also tried to impose a limit to reduce the number of flights at Schiphol. He halted those plans in November after bowing to pressure from airlines, the EU and the US government, who warned of an impact on competition.

A large part of European airlines’ zero-emissions plan is based on switching to so-called sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs), made from raw materials other than fossil fuels.

But these new fuels are expensive and scarce, leading environmental groups to assert that a substantial reduction in flights will be the only way for the industry to decarbonize.