Air NZ says by 2030 'nearly every overseas port' it flies to will require it to carry sustainable fuel - but not NZ

Air New Zealand says its failure to persuade government to require airlines flying here to replace some of their fossil fuel with sustainable fuel was one reason it ditched its own 2030 climate target. A spokesperson for the airline told a conference that by 2030, nearly every overseas port it flies to will require it to fly home with a proportion of sustainable fuel - but there is no government commitment to a similar mandate for airlines landing in New Zealand. The airline made international headlines when it dropped its ambitious target of cutting emissions by 29% by 2030 - a target based on what is required to keep the planet within 1.5C of heating. The airline confirmed it had kept a separate target, to use 10% sustainable fuel (in place of fossil fuel) in its planes by 2030. A visibly emotional head of sustainability for the airline, Kiri Hannifin, fronted a climate conference in September and described her team's grief at realising the airline would not meet its ambitious 2030 climate target. She said her team feared it would lead to other companies moving more slowly to decarbonise, which she said would be "the worst outcome for all of us." "It's a terrible thing to have to admit and it's been very hard for our team, my team in particular, who follow science and know what needs to happen," she said. "We just didn't have enough control of the levers we needed to pull to meet the target."<br/>