Aviation can achieve net-zero by 2050 if immediate action is taken, says report

Cambridge University has today released a report outlining a five-year roadmap to help the aviation sector achieve net-zero climate impact by 2050.

Despite ambitious pledges from governments and industry, the aviation sector remains significantly off course in its efforts to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. The report, titled “Five Years to Chart a New Future for Aviation,” outlines four 2030 Sustainable Aviation Goals—specific, actionable steps that must be initiated immediately and completed within five years if the aviation sector is to be on track to achieve net-zero by 2050.

The 2030 Goals outlined in the report are:

• Accelerating the deployment of a global contrail avoidance system, which could reduce aviation’s climate impact by up to 40%. This would involve the immediate creation of experiments at the scale of whole airspace regions to learn in real environments.
• Implementing a new wave of policies aimed at unlocking system-wide efficiency gains across the existing aviation sector. This has the potential to halve fuel burn by 2050 by tapping into efficiency gains that individual companies can’t address.
• Reforming Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) policies to account for global biomass limits across all sectors while driving renewable electricity production. This would provide the market with the confidence needed to rapidly scale up SAF production and ensure its sustainability.
• Launching several moonshot technology demonstration programs designed to rapidly assess the viability and scalability of transformative technologies, bringing forward the timeline for their deployment.

The report stresses that if these actions are initiated immediately and completed within five years, the aviation sector can put itself on track to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

The report was developed by the Aviation Impact Accelerator (AIA)—a project led by the University of Cambridge, hosted by the University’s Whittle Laboratory and the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). The report will be presented to industry leaders at events hosted by the Sustainable Markets Initiative as part of New York Climate Week.

The Whittle Laboratory is a world-leading research center specializing in flight and energy. Partnering with the world’s leading industries to develop low emission and zero emission technologies. CISL is a globally leading institute supporting business and government to move towards a sustainable economy.

Professor Rob Miller, Director, Whittle Lab says, “Aviation stands at a pivotal moment, much like the automotive industry in the late 2000s. Back then, discussions centered around biofuels as the replacement for petrol and diesel—until Tesla revolutionized the future with electric vehicles. Our five-year plan is designed to accelerate this decision point in aviation, setting it on a path to achieve net-zero by 2050.”

Eliot Whittington, Executive Director at Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership says, “Too often the discussions about how to achieve sustainable aviation lurch between overly optimistic thinking about current industry efforts and doom-laden cataloging of the sector’s environmental evils.

“The Aviation Impact Accelerator modeling has drawn on the best available evidence to show that there are major challenges to be navigated if we’re to achieve net zero flying at scale, but that it is possible. With focus and a step change in ambition from governments and business, we can address the hurdles, unlock sustainable flying and in doing so build new industries and support wider economic change.”