cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18104463
Air New Zealand has abandoned a 2030 goal to cut its carbon emissions, blaming difficulties securing more efficient planes and sustainable jet fuel.
The move makes it the first major carrier to back away from such a climate target.
The airline added it is working on a new short-term target and it remains committed to an industry-wide goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050.
The aviation industry is estimated to produce around 2% of global carbon dioxide emissions, which airlines have been trying to reduce with measures including replacing older aircraft and using fuel from renewable sources.
My guess is this is the underlying reason. Basically these companies set up the infrastructure for when governments would start to mandate this stuff, and they’d get a bit of nice press out of it. However, the fossil companies have found that you can basically confound all progress by the private sector just via the threat of rolling back climate legislation. This happened when the LNP government even just mentioned a nuclear plan which is just plain stupid.
I’m guessing by even stating it, Air NZ has gone one better than a lot of companies, which have conveniently “forgotten” about their goals. They’ll get 20% of the way and declare that a success, but basically one company can’t move until all of them move. We need to get the crazies out of government and out of opposition too.