For the airline industry it was as “momentous decision”; for environment campaigners it was “essentially meaningless”. Earlier this month, the global airline trade body Iata passed a resolution, approved by almost 300 of the world’s biggest carriers, to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Like Santa Claus, millions of passengers wrestling the desire to fly with environmental guilt would love to believe in it. Willie Walsh, the Iata director general, is famously no santa, but has pushed the policy, whose adoption perhaps met less acclaim than airlines hoped.
Airlines first pledged a 50% net reduction in emissions back in 2009, a target that after the 2015 Paris accords, “clearly wasn’t enough”, Walsh says. Some airlines – including the
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