As the largest contributor to UK emissions, decarbonising our transport sector must be a priority and aviation is a key part of that.

The Committee on Climate Change has warned that aviation is likely to be the largest emitting sector in the UK by 2050, even with strong progress on technology and limiting demand. 

I am extremely concerned that the Department for Transport’s long-awaited Jet Zero Strategy falls short of meeting the challenges we face.

I worry that it rests on optimistic assumptions and speculative technological breakthroughs, which are either in their infancy or do not yet exist. It will also have no impact on emissions in the crucial short term i.e. before 2030 and could be counteracted by the Government’s decision to build more airport runways. 

Therefore, I wrote to Robert Courts, the Minister responsible for aviation, and raised my concerns with him. Here is his reply:

The Minister maintains that the Government can still achieve net zero in the aviation sector, even with its plans to expand the UK’s airports. In the short to medium term, this is based on policies such as the rollout of newer, more energy efficient models of aircraft and on the adoption of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), aiming to reach 10% SAF by 2030. 

Whilst I welcome these initiatives and the difference that they will make, I am concerned that they fall well short of a plan to reach aviation net zero by 2050. Even the Minister himself acknowledges that “many of the technologies we need to achieve Jet Zero are at an early stage of development or commercialisation”. 

I appreciate that the Minister is open about this, and that the Government is “committed to monitoring progress against the emissions reductions trajectory annually and reviewing our overall strategy every five years, adapting our approach based on progress made.” 

I can assure you that I will continue to hold the Government to its target of achieving aviation net zero by 2050 and push them to provide a more concrete plan of how it is going to do it.