Just The News: Like the electric vehicle mandates, sustainable aviation losing altitude shortly after takeoff

Multiple automakers are reconsidering their push to transition their fleets to electric vehicles, and now the airline industry is altering its decarbonization targets. 

Air New Zealand recently retreated from its 2030 climate goals. The company has cancelled its commitment to reducing its carbon intensity by 28.9% from its 2019 levels by 2030 and announced that it will withdraw from the Science Based Targets Initiative.

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Dan Kish, senior vice president of policy for American Energy Alliance, told Just the News that he thinks it’s part of the degrowth mentality that is so much a part of the effort to reach net-zero. Despite this small contribution to emissions, air travel represents growth, prosperity and freedom. 

“It has a lot more to do with leaving no stone unturned in terms of making life miserable, more miserable for people than it need be, under the guise of saving the climate, which this certainly will not do,” Kish said. 

If the airline industry were to transition over to SAF, there would likely be a lot less travel. The Institute for Energy Research, a free market think tank focused on energy policy, writes that Europe’s biggest airline group, Lufthansa, is adding a surcharge to ticket prices starting next year to cover environmental regulatory costs, which could be as high as $75 per flight. The costs include blending standards for SAF. It will start at 2% in 2025, go to 6% in 2030, 20% in 2035, and then 70% in 2050. 

Read the full article at Just The News.