{"id":401060,"date":"2025-09-09T08:43:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T06:43:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=401060"},"modified":"2025-09-09T08:43:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T06:43:06","slug":"airlines-warn-that-net-zero-targets-are-slipping-beyond-reach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=401060","title":{"rendered":"Airlines warn that net zero targets are slipping beyond\u00a0reach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Paul Homewood<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Telegraph reports:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Headline<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"An<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two of Britain\u2019s biggest airlines have warned that the Government\u2019s net zero targets are at risk of becoming unachievable.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virgin Atlantic and International Airlines Group (IAG), the parent company of British Airways, have raised concerns over a mandate for carriers to use at least 10pc of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) by 2030.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They said this is becoming increasingly challenging amid a shortage of production across the UK, where there is yet to be a single SAF plant built.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holly Boyd-Boland, an executive at Virgin, said the point is fast approaching when it will no longer be possible to convincingly claim that <\/em>net zero goals<\/em><\/a> can be met.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

She told a conference in London: \u201cWe\u2019re at risk of a growing credibility gap for us as a sector in terms of where we set our ambition and what we actually deliver.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom a consumer perspective and wider stakeholders, we\u2019re getting close to an inflection point where we cannot demonstrate supply in the system and a reduction in emissions.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jonathon Counsell, of IAG, said global SAF production totalled 1m tonnes last year \u2013 which was \u201ca drop in the ocean\u201d compared to the 400m-500m tonnes required to deliver net zero emissions by 2050.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was clear from the outset that SAF targets were little more than green virtue signalling. There was never any sort of justification, economic or environmental, while the rest of the world is carrying on as normal<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a pity Virgin and the rest did not tell the truth in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile Shell have cancelled plans to build a giant biofuel factory in the Netherlands because \u201cSAF and biodiesel were too expensive and insufficiently competitive\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, from the Telegraph:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Headline<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We would be a global force in \u201cjet zero\u201d, <\/em>promised Boris Johnson<\/em><\/a>, the former prime minister, five years ago. Britain would lead the way in creating \u201csustainable aviation\u201d, with world-leading research on planes that could fly across the Atlantic without doing any harm to the environment.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right across the Western world, leaders were making similar pledges, investing billions in new types of fuels and engines, while slapping punitive taxes on the old, dirty jets to make sure we switched to cleaner ones as quickly as possible.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The jet zero project is now in <\/em>full-scale retreat<\/em><\/a>, with companies pulling out of a market that doesn\u2019t exist, and countries scaling back on aviation taxes. It isn\u2019t going to happen \u2013 and we would be far better off cutting carbon emissions elsewhere while allowing the aviation industry to flourish.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has been another bad week for the cheerleaders for sustainable flying. Shell decided that a huge new plant in the Netherlands that was designed to be one of Europe\u2019s major converters of waste into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and biodiesel was <\/em>too expensive and insufficiently competitive<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision was, according to Ashley Kelty, an analyst at Panmure Liberium, \u201canother nail in the ideological coffin for SAF and biofuels\u201d. Airlines still face mandatory targets to use set quotas of green fuels, but it is hard to know where they will get them, given that even a company as large as Shell, with lots of world-class expertise at its disposal, does not seem to be able to work out how to make the stuff at a reasonable cost.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, a few countries are even giving up on aviation taxes. From July, anyone getting a plane out of Sweden will no longer have to pay a green levy on their ticket, after its government decided that the \u201cflight-shaming\u201d movement had done too much damage to the industry. India and Germany have also reduced the taxes on air travel. With grim inevitability, Britain\u2019s tax-obsessed Labour Government is still putting them up, with yet more rises in air passenger duty in the last Budget, but at least some countries are recognising they do more harm than good.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two of Britain\u2019s biggest airlines have warned that the Government\u2019s net zero targets are at risk of becoming unachievable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":401068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"Airlines warn UK's net zero emissions goals may be unachievable as sustainable fuel production lags behind ambitious targets.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"Airlines Warn: UK Net Zero Aviation Targets at Risk","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691829317,691833641,691837831,691837830,691819627,691818154,691837829],"class_list":{"0":"post-401060","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-airline-industry","9":"tag-aviation","10":"tag-jet-zero","11":"tag-british-airways","12":"tag-clean-energy","13":"tag-net-zero","14":"tag-virgin-atlantic","16":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AQOkZ7J3lTr0zlcyXkNkp849z6SWKzvun9TW03mtYvIQcYTx-y30CZCWoBBUztCeybT7ovr4OrU2xssjqBAAwzU0PneCWcVRc0ySsvX3IUgbylbRZMWFaoWufkmAt-chyJ3iOouFxZ7L7-MTHq70c1X4MaAc.jpeg?fit=1280%2C1280&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1GkI","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":262539,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=262539","url_meta":{"origin":401060,"position":0},"title":"Pigs Might Fly","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"17\/06\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Every \u201cnet zero\u201d solution seems to cause problems. The Law of Unintended Consequences applies to net zero as ruthlessly as it does to everything else in life.","rel":"","context":"In \"BBC\"","block_context":{"text":"BBC","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=bbc"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0-flying-pigs.png?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0-flying-pigs.png?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0-flying-pigs.png?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0-flying-pigs.png?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0-flying-pigs.png?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":333366,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=333366","url_meta":{"origin":401060,"position":1},"title":"Net Zero Aviation Targets Driving \u201cMass Scale\u201d Fraud and Deforestation","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"20\/06\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Net Zero targets aimed at encouraging airlines to use so-called green aviation fuel are driving fraud \u201cat a mass scale\u201d and deforestation, campaigners have said.","rel":"","context":"In \"air travel\"","block_context":{"text":"air travel","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=air-travel"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/00child-in-the-field.webp?fit=1200%2C677&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/00child-in-the-field.webp?fit=1200%2C677&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/00child-in-the-field.webp?fit=1200%2C677&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/00child-in-the-field.webp?fit=1200%2C677&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/00child-in-the-field.webp?fit=1200%2C677&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":333491,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=333491","url_meta":{"origin":401060,"position":2},"title":"Green aviation targets driving cooking oil fraud at \u2018mass\u00a0scale\u2019","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"21\/06\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Net zero targets aimed at encouraging airlines to use so-called green aviation fuel are driving fraud \u201cat a mass scale\u201d, campaigners claim. 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