Key climate target of airline decarbonisation 'in peril': IATA

New Delhi (AFP) – The airline industry's flagship goal of decarbonising by 2050 is now "in peril" due to climate-sceptic policies, including those of US President Donald Trump, the leading airline association IATA warned on Sunday.

The emergence of leaders favouring fossil fuels and recent regulatory rollbacks are "obviously a setback... it does imperil success on the 2050 horizon", Marie Owens Thomsen, the International Air Transport Association's senior vice president for sustainability, told reporters.

"But I don't think it's going to halt or reverse progress. I think it will just slow progress," she said at the IATA annual industry conference in India.

Trump's Republican administration is supporting the development of fossil fuels in contrast to his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, who had massively supported the production of renewable aviation fuels through tax credits.

To achieve net-zero emissions, airlines rely on non-fossil sources known as Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).

However, SAF biofuels are still three to four times more expensive than petroleum-based jet fuel.

"Another problem, which is related, is the fact that oil is so cheap," Owens Thomsen said. "I think that also diminishes the sense of urgency that people have."

A barrel of Brent North Sea crude, the international benchmark, stands below $65 as a result of Trump's tariffs, his call to "drill baby drill" and especially a decision by OPEC+ to hike crude output quotas.

This represents an immediate boon for airlines, whose fuel costs represent between a quarter and a third of operating expenses.

Yes. It is all stupid and pandering to a know nothing crowd.

I remember when Continental Airlines introduced their EcoJet. It was a normal B737. It flew one flight with biodiesel jet fuel in one center tank. At one point in the test flight, one engine was switched to the biodiesel tank for a few seconds, then back to the normal jet fuel tank.

After landing, the biodiesel tank was emptied and flushed. Then the jet was sent to the paint shop where the winglets were painted green and EcoJet was painted on the nose. Tada!!! The climate friendly EcoJet was born for all of the hummus and soy pansies to worship.

It was marketing genius.

“First airliner to fall out of the sky due to loss of power and this initiative is over.”

Easy trigger. SAF are aromatic hydrocarbons of the exact specifications of JET A1 or JP8 they are molecule by molecule identical. They also must meet ASTM D1655 and DEF STAN 91-91 specifically and exactly. The reason they are 4x the cost is they are synthesized molecule by molecule this is currently expensive. Because the raw value of energy per megajoule in liquid hydrocarbons that are fossil sunshine from the ground are a fraction of the cost of the same megajoule from say biomass or carbon dioxide and hydrogen captured from the air or slip from water.

Airbus has already flow an A380 across the Atlantic and to the UAE on 100% synthetic hydrocarbons aka SAF. The Germans flew a lot of aircraft using similar fuels in WII made much the same way via syngas they used coal rather than biomass for the source of the syngas but the cobalt catalysts don’t care where they get CO + H2’

At some point in less than 47 ish years humans will have no choice but to synthesis liquid hydrocarbons as all the easy to get amounts anywhere at any price will be used up. No abiotic oil is a myth no petroleum geologist anywhere has presented and survived peer review EVER. The path forward should be nuclear power, specifically fast spectrum reactors right next to the oceans where you have a convenient source of not only unlimited water but also 180 times as much CO2 as in the air per unit of volume moved. The Navy has already made JP8 using seawater and a bipolar electrolysis setup you get all the CO2 in seawater before a single hydrogen atom comes out it’s a unavoidable byproduct of the process. They did in for $6 per gallon in 2014 dollars. This is the long term only way aircraft still fly once humans get to $300+ per bbl oil due to resource depletion.

The math is conclusive we have 48 years before oil is way to precious to burn it to the sky using it only once. Much more valuable for petrochemicals,medications,lubricants,plastics,adhesives,composites,fertilizers...

Owen has echoed this same fact with liquid hydrocarbons being a finite and rapidly depleting resource when you have only two billion using it in gusto wait till the other 6 billion demand and get access to that supply.

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