{"id":4566,"date":"2023-06-22T10:26:25","date_gmt":"2023-06-22T09:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/?p=4566"},"modified":"2023-12-20T17:41:27","modified_gmt":"2023-12-20T17:41:27","slug":"iata-releases-roadmaps-and-milestones-towards-meeting-industrys-net-zero-by-2050-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/?p=4566","title":{"rendered":"IATA releases roadmaps and milestones towards meeting industry\u2019s net zero by 2050 target"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The sustainability challenge is, bar none, the biggest we will face as leaders of the aviation industry, Director General Willie Walsh told delegates in his keynote report at IATA’s 2023 AGM and World Air Transport Summit<\/mark><\/a> held in Istanbul. At its meeting in 2021, airlines committed to achieving net zero carbon by 2050 and released its Fly Net Zero strategy on how the aviation sector could reach the target. Together with industry stakeholders, IATA has updated the strategy and published five roadmaps covering aircraft technology, operations, finance, policy and energy and new fuels infrastructure. Achieving net zero will depend on early policy support and targeted financing to accelerate the transition, says IATA, but the greatest challenge will not be related to any specific solution but to the pace at which it needs to happen. The cost of the transition to net zero is estimated at over $5 trillion dollars.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Since the industry commitment in 2021, ICAO member states have adopted their own net zero goal, even if aspirational, which makes all governments now accountable to deliver a global policy framework to achieve net zero by 2050, according to Walsh<\/mark><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI must emphasise that the roadmaps are not just for airlines,\u201d he said. \u201cGovernments, suppliers and financiers cannot be spectators to the challenge. We all have skin in the game. And each must deliver the products, policies or investments needed to decarbonise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe roadmaps are the first detailed assessment of the key steps necessary to accelerate the transition. Together, they show a clear direction and will evolve as we dig deeper to set interim milestones on the way to net zero. They are a call to action for all aviation\u2019s stakeholders to deliver the tools needed to make this fundamental transformation of aviation a success with policies and products fit for a net-zero world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The roadmap work conducted through a peer-to-peer review was complemented by a modelling tool provided by the Air Transportation Systems Laboratory at University College London to calculate emission reductions for each technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a different exercise to other roadmaps, which have largely adopted a top-down analysis on what levers can be applied to achieve net zero,\u201d said Hemant Mistry, Director Energy Transition at IATA, during the roadmap launch. \u201cWhat we have done is a detailed, bottom-up analysis and assessment of what specific actions are required across the value chain, including governments and financiers, and to track progress towards net zero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI stress these roadmaps are not a definitive recipe or fixed scenario of what will happen \u2013 things will change and we all have to accept that. We can expect some technological developments to accelerate faster, whereas others may be slower to take off. The roadmaps show the actions that need to be taken and the sequence in which they need to occur. They will be regularly updated as new information becomes available and become a reference source for the industry\u2019s progress towards net zero.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Passenger numbers have rebounded quickly following the Covid-19 hiatus and IATA anticipates a full recovery in 2024. By 2025, global passenger numbers are expected by IATA<\/mark><\/a> to reach 4.6 billion and continue rising to 10 billion in 2050. Boeing\u2019s latest Commercial Market Outlook<\/mark><\/a> just released forecasts a doubling of the global aircraft fleet over the next 20 years, with replacement aircraft accounting for half of deliveries. Against this growth, IATA estimates carbon emissions<\/mark><\/a> from the sector will climb from a pre-Covid level of just under 1 gigatons to 1.8 gigatons by 2050, assuming a business-as-usual growth, leaving an accumulation of 21.2 gigatons of CO2 over the period to be mitigated by improved efficiencies from technology, operations and infrastructure, accompanied by a ramping up in the use of sustainable aviation fuels and the implementation of market-based measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IATA sees three \u2018levers of action\u2019 the aviation sector can use to reduce, neutralise and eliminate its emissions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n