Government must hold industry to account to deliver on its net zero commitment 

4th February, 2020

Today, Sustainable Aviation has published its carbon roadmap which commits the UK industry to net zero emissions by 2050. While the industry has set the right level of ambition, following on from the Committee on Climate Change’s (CCC’s) advice last year, the Government must now take steps to ensure it delivers, argues the AEF.

AEF Tim Johnson said:

The aviation industry likes to set targets, but so far has successfully resisted being held to account for delivering them. To make sure this net zero goal translates into action, UK aviation and aerospace companies should now support the CCC’s recommendation to Government that it should legislate to include international aviation emissions in the UK’s net zero law.
 
The roadmap should not give the industry a green light to grow without a Government plan in place to limit emissions. To date, industry goals have failed to prevent absolute aviation emissions from increasing. 

Even with technological improvements and new fuels, aviation is set to be the largest emitting sector in the UK by 2050. The SA roadmap relies on offsets and greenhouse gas removals to close this gap, but this places a heavy reliance on the scaling up of technologies which are both costly and largely unproven, while the CCC has already advised Government that its net zero target should not be met through the use of international offset credits.