Decarbonising Aviation - Protecting Aviation's Social Licence

In this QIC Insight paper, we consider the role of airports in facilitating the energy transition for powering flight, principally through SAF and alternative fuels, such as hydrogen and electric.

Aviation is one of the primary drivers and facilitators of economic growth, supporting trade and commerce that is crucial to economic development in all regions of the world. Most recently, its importance at a human level was highlighted through its indispensable role in repatriating people who were stranded in foreign countries at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and then in the logistics of distributing COVID-19 vaccines around the world at a scale and pace previously unimaginable. It is estimated that aviation’s contribution to global CO2 emissions is in the range of 2.5 to 3.0%¹, with the highest emitters concentrated in higher-income jurisdictions². While airports are addressing their own Scope 1 and 2 emissions, the bulk of emissions produced by the aviation sector are driven by aircraft fuel consumption. Airports do not directly control these Scope 3 emissions and are largely removed from decisions relating to fuel or aircraft selection. Nevertheless, as an asset owner, airports have an important role to play in influencing, facilitating and promoting solutions that will reduce Scope 3 emissions. 

In this paper, we consider the role of airports in facilitating the energy transition for powering flight, principally through SAF and alternative fuels such as hydrogen and electric. The timely development and implementation of an industry-wide strategy to deliver a carbon neutral outcome for the future of aviation will be key to ensuring the continued growth of the industry, maintaining its social licence and mitigating key risks, particularly the risk of government intervention such as caps on allowable flights^3,4, prohibition of some short-haul flying^5,6, or wider imposition of curfews and movement restrictions.

Citations

1. Climate change and flying: what share of global CO2 emissions come from aviation? - Our World in Data
2. Where in the world do people have the highest CO2 emissions from flying? - Our World in Data
3.  Dutch court rejects plan to cap Schiphol flights in 2023-24
4. Netherlands can cap Schiphol flights, Dutch appeal court rules
5.  France bans short-haul domestic flights in favour of train travel
6. France's short-haul domestic flight ban: A measure lacking substance