‘Not trying to mislead’: airlines chief defends industry’s net zero pledge

For the airline industry it was as “momentous decision”; for environment campaigners it was “essentially meaningless”. Earlier this month, the global airline trade body Iata passed a resolution, approved by almost 300 of the world’s biggest carriers, to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Like Santa Claus, millions of passengers wrestling the desire to fly with environmental guilt would love to believe in it. Willie Walsh, the Iata DG, is famously no Santa, but has pushed the policy, whose adoption perhaps met less acclaim than airlines hoped. Airlines first promised a 50% net reduction in emissions back in 2009, a target that after the 2015 Paris accords, “clearly wasn’t enough”, Walsh says. Some airlines – including the one Walsh was then running, British Airways owner IAG – have since committed to reach net zero by 2050. Nonetheless, he says the agreement at Iata’s AGM this October remains “a big deal”. “In Europe the appreciation of the need to address this is more advanced,” Walsh says. “The important thing was to translate a commitment from some airlines into one on behalf of the industry.” How it will be done is a bigger question. Iata has fleshed out a plan that depends action by government and other industry players, such as fuel suppliers and aircraft manufacturers, as much as airlines, and will have a cost – to be borne somewhere between carriers, governments or passengers – of about $2t. Speaking Sunday, Walsh is unrepentant, comparing airlines to car drivers: “You’ve got to mandate the people who produce the planes, the engines, the fuels, operate the air traffic control systems. They’re all standing there staring at us, saying, ‘OK guys now, you do it.’ In the same way as the car industry was forced to deliver, they’ve got to be forced to deliver. It clearly requires proper government policy.”<br/>