Flight path to net zero

A roadmap to net-zero aviation

Each of the four goals is specifically targeted to raise ambition in a particular area of aviation.

The first goal is to remove the clouds (contrails) formed by aviation. Speeding up the deployment of a global contrail avoidance system 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. For example, an aircraft changing altitude in regions of the atmosphere where there is potential to form clouds.

Around one in 30 flights produces a persistent contrail, a region of cloud that can trap heat and increase the climate impact of aviation. The climate impact of contrails from planes is estimated by some researchers to be about the same as the aviation industry's total CO₂emissions, though there is scientific debate surrounding this estimation.

The second goalis to implement 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.

The third goal is to reform 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. The goal is to put in place the global policies required to minimise the wider impact of SAFs on climate and nature.

The final goal is to launch several moonshot technology demonstration programmes designed to rapidly assess the viability and scalability of transformative technologies, bringing forward the timeline for their deployment.

An example of this is long-haul hydrogen aircraft. The low weight of hydrogen fuel, even once the weight of the tanks is included, makes hydrogen advantageous for long-haul flight, and the introduction of hydrogen would remove CO₂ emissions from flight.

Royal support for genuine change

The first post-coronation engagement for His Majesty The King was to convene a group of aviation industry CEOs, alongside senior Government representatives, to help work on the 2030 Goals. His Majesty visited the University of Cambridge in May 2023 and broke ground on a £58-million Whittle Laboratory facility while encouraging the acceleration of sustainable aviation.

His Majesty also spoke at the opening reception for COP28 and "urged us to continue to raise our ambitions in driving change in the aviation sector," said Miller.

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