Business aviation has teamed together with airlines and airports to enhance its initiatives to combat climate change
The National Corporate Aviation Association (NBAA) and other business groups pledged on Tuesday to achieve “net zero” carbon emissions by 2050 as the industry’s premier private jet show opened in Las Vegas. Business aviation has teamed together with airlines and airports to bolster its strategy for dealing with local weather change. Previously, the company promised to cut emissions in half by 2050 compared to 2005 levels.
Aviation is responsible for about 3% of global CO2 emissions, and an increase in private travel is putting pressure on the business aviation industry to reduce emissions. Consumers are looking for more environmentally friendly models and asking about offsetting, according to aviation brokers and other business executives interviewed by Reuters today, but none are deferring purchases of company planes or private travel because of the environment.
While business aviation creates a fraction of the pollution that commercial aircraft does, private travel has come under increased attention as a result of it generates more emissions per passenger than scheduled airline flights. “The world is demanding sustainability,” NBAA CEO Ed Bolen told reporters during a brunch. A group representing international airlines set the same aim at its annual general meeting in Boston a week ago. Planemakers are using more recyclable materials on their planes, looking for ways to lighten planes so they use less gasoline, and working on a new era of electric planes.
However, just like airlines, business plane executives agree that the quickest method to reduce emissions is to utilise sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which isn’t widely available due to its higher costs. Sustainable aviation gasoline, according to the US Department of Energy’s website, is “produced from renewable biomass and waste resources” and has the potential to “provide the performance of petroleum-based jet fuel at a fraction of the carbon footprint.”