BA’s ‘carbon neutral’ flight needs lift on cutting emissions
British Airways operated what was billed as a “carbon neutral” flight last week between London and Glasgow, as it tries to burnish its green credentials in the lead-in to next month’s COP26 climate summit in Scotland.
While it was a lower-emissions flight, the attempt by IAG SA’s flagship airline to apply a zero-carbon label exposes the problems that the aviation industry faces in cutting emissions while also trying to meet demand set to resume following the coronavirus pandemic.
The aviation industry has no silver-bullet solution to the growing emissions problem. Planes can only become so much more fuel efficient until a new generation of hydrogen technology arrives. In the meantime, there’s not enough supply of sustainable aviation fuel, and a lack of transparency means it’s unclear whether offsets are actually helping to cut emissions.
“Zero-emission aircraft are still on the drawing board, and sustainable aviation fuel is only available in tiny quantities,” said Matt Finch, U.K. policy manager at campaign group Transport & Environment. “Neither will be widely available till the 2030s, and yet the industry is touting these as a way to decarbonize now.”
The trip to Glasgow ahead of COP26, which starts Oct. 31, was a redux of a similar one BA took in 2010, using an Airbus SE A321. Billed as the Perfect Flight, it went from London Heathrow to Edinburgh, and highlighted the savings available in fuel and emissions through route optimization. In 2021, BA is using a newer, more-efficient A320neo powered with a blend of 35 percent SAF mixed with conventional kerosene.
Emissions were 62 percent lower on last week’s flight, BA said. It attributed a 34 percent drop to using aircraft with moreefficient engines and operational improvements, while sustainable aviation fuels caused a 28 percent reduction. The biggest chunk — 38 percent of emissions — came from carbon offsets.
Offset debate
To bill the Glasgow flight as carbon-neutral, BA purchased what it called “high-quality, verified carbon offsets” to counter the impact of fossil-fuel use.
Offsets involve funding measures such as forest protection, energy-efficiency projects or wind farms. Experts warn against the use of cheap ones, where it’s impossible to be sure carbon was removed from the atmosphere to neutralize the flight’s remaining emissions.
Still, carbon offsets form the backbone of the aviation industry’s official near-term strategy for fighting CO2.
Some carriers, including United Airlines Holdings Inc., reject using carbon offsets at all.
“It cannot scale to the size of the global problem,” United CEO Scott Kirby said in a Wall Street Journal interview posted on Twitter. “If we planted every acre on the planet that can theoretically grow trees, it would account for less than 5 months of mankind’s carbon emissions, and then we’re done.”
With hydrogen-powered commercial airliners still a decade or more away, there’s little for carriers to do but use carbon offsets and promote SAF. While London-based IAG was one of the first airline groups to pledge to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, the International Air Transport Association is only this year planning to ask other carriers to adopt the target.