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The aviation industry is likely to miss its target to reach net zero by 2050, the recently departed boss of Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, one of Europe’s busiest hubs, has warned.
Ruud Sondag said he feared governments in Europe would intervene to limit the industry’s growth through higher taxes or caps on flights unless it improved its environmental record.
“I think it’s important to . . . state that the plans that the aviation industry itself has, most probably will not lead to the result that we are all signed up for in the Paris Agreement,” Sondag told the Financial Times in an interview.
“I think there’s a distinct risk that if you don’t do something about this, then politicians . . . or judges will interfere,” he said. “In the long run, you will lose your licence to operate.”
Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, countries committed to limit global temperature rises to well below 2C and ideally to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, leading industries to lay out their plans to decarbonise.
European airlines and airports in 2021 agreed to reach net zero emissions by 2050 in a detailed road map that outlined how the industry believed it could leverage new technologies such as cleaner fuels to decarbonise while still growing.
Sondag, who was speaking before he stepped down as Schiphol’s chief earlier this month, stands out as one of the very few industry executives to publicly cast doubt on these environmental targets, and accept the possibility of lowering growth to cut emissions.
“We need to do something. And if that’s a standstill [in air travel growth] for the time being, OK, is that such a big fuss,” he said.
“I think it’s essential for society that you can fly. But societal acceptance, if it’s not there, especially here in this densely populated area, then you have a problem.”
Laurent Donceel, deputy managing director at Airlines for Europe, the industry lobby group in Brussels, said aviation would “fully play its part” in contributing to Europe’s climate goals.
He said airlines were focused on technologies including new fuels or more efficient aircraft, but said measures such as carbon pricing and offsetting schemes would “bridge any gaps” and ensure the industry hit net zero.
ACI Europe, which represents the region’s airports, said its members had made “tremendous and systemic efforts” to cut their own carbon emissions. It added that the EU Commission has so far not suggested that cutting flying is needed for theindustry to reach net zero.
Schiphol, which is owned by the Dutch state, has unveiled a plan to shrink small parts of its business, including banning private jets, night flights and the noisiest planes, in response to noise and pollution complaints.
The Dutch government has also tried to impose a cap to lower the number of flights at Schiphol.
It paused those plans in November after bowing to pressure from airlines, the EU and the US government, which all warned of a hit to competition.
A large part of the European airlines’ net zero plan is based on a switch to so-called sustainable aviation fuels or SAFs, which are made from feedstocks other than fossil fuels.
But these new fuels are expensive and scarce, leading environmental groups to claim that a substantial reduction in flying will be the only way for the industry to decarbonise.
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