Mayor trying to wish away emissions from planes
The Mayor of London has insisted he doesn’t need to provide detailed plans on reducing emissions from jet planes.
At Mayor’s Question Time, the Mayor was repeatedly challenged to make a target to reduce aviation emissions by Zack Polanski AM and reminded that any expansion of City Airport would have consequences for the climate. [1]
The Mayor pointed to sustainable aviation fuel as a solution to reducing aviation emissions, despite the fact that this fuel is not expected to be used at scale until after 2030. The global aviation and fossil fuel industries are banking on these questionable technologies to allow them to double flight numbers by the 2030s, an ambition incompatible with net zero targets. [2]
Green Party London Assembly Member Zack Polanski says:
“The Mayor is buying into greenwash if he thinks fancy fuels are going to solve his aviation emissions problem by 2030. We need practical measures now that reduce emissions, like a just transition for London City Airport, and focussing airlines on making their operations more efficient, and passengers on alternatives to flying.
“Growing flights to London is unacceptable. No matter how much you dress up City's airport expansion - it means more emissions. London needs rapid, deep and immediate reductions in climate emissions, yet City Airport are proposing further expansion.
“The Mayor has set a path to make London net-zero by 2030 but I worry that he is taking assurances from airlines and airports at face value, and letting them off the hook. We need the Mayor to challenge airport expansion.
The Mayor’s carbon pathway to take London to net zero by 2030 includes assumptions that aviation would never recover to levels seen before the pandemic, but still grow slowly. However, flights at London airports are already close to 90 per cent of previous demand, and airports are again proposing expansions in flights. [3]
Notes to editors
[1] The full exchange between Zack Polanski AM and the Mayor can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB2R7r6zVPI
[2] BP say that sustainable aviation fuel would is necessary because aviation passengers would double globally by 2050 to 8 billion. https://www.bp.com/en/global/air-bp/news-and-views/views/what-is-sustainable-aviation-fuel-saf-and-why-is-it-important.html
Carbon Brief has noted concerns about the cost and scale of production for sustainable aviation fuel by organisations including the Climate Change Committee.
The Climate Change Committee has said that sustainable aviation fuel has “a risk that supported fuels will not have significant lifecycle emission savings or will have opportunity costs within other sectors”.
Table 9.2, Policy scorecard for aviation, Progress report to Parliament, Climate Change Committee, June 2022
https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/2022-progress-report-to-parliament/
The Government’s current mandate would be for 10 per cent of aviation fuel to be made of sustainable aviation fuel with a 50 per cent carbon saving for that fuel. That means an effective 5 per cent carbon saving which would be outweighed by proposed airport expansion.
[3] The Mayor’s carbon pathways tool is based on aviation emissions in London having fallen from 998 ktCO2 in 2019 to 393 ktCO2 in 2020, with a sustained growth to over 600 ktCO2 in the 2040s.
However, data from the Civil Aviation Authority shows that Heathrow saw 34,583 flight movements in November 2022, which was already 91 per cent of the level seen in 2019.
https://www.caa.co.uk/data-and-analysis/uk-aviation-market/airports/uk-airport-data/
London City Airport submitted their planning application for an expansion of their passenger cap from 6.5 to 9 million in December 2022, a 40 per cent increase.
https://media.londoncityairport.com/london-city-submits-planning-application-to-the-london-borough-of-newham/ https://pa.newham.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=RNYU92JY5NA00