Net Zero has been left on life support after the aviation industry abandoned hydrogen-powered planes, despite billions in investment, with no alternative ‘green’ technology on the cards. The Telegraph has more.
The push to develop hydrogen-powered planes was once a key part of the aviation industry’s bid to eliminate carbon emissions. But in the last few weeks, it has fallen suddenly and dramatically out of favour.
First, European airlines and manufacturers drastically downgraded their target for the contribution of hydrogen to their goal of reaching Net Zero by 2050.
Then Airbus, the world’s biggest plane maker, put the industry’s most advanced programme for developing a hydrogen-powered passenger aircraft on hold.
Boeing, always a comparative sceptic, has meanwhile confirmed that it sees little or no role for hydrogen in decarbonising its own jets for decades at least.
The decline in hydrogen’s fortunes represents a potential setback for the UK, where British companies and the Government have invested hundreds of millions of pounds in the technology.
It also leaves the European aviation industry facing a bill of more than €1 trillion (£830bn) to decarbonise by the middle of the century, a total it will struggle to fund alone.
Hydrogen planes “have almost vanished from the road map”, says Carlos López de la Osa, of Transport and Environment (T&E), which promotes sustainable flying.
As a result, the only realistic fuel alternative to fossil fuels for full-size passenger jets appears to have been swept off the board.
Electric airliners are regarded as a little more than a pipe dream by many experts because of the excessive weight and low energy density of batteries, while the credibility of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is in doubt.
Climate campaigners question its carbon-reduction credentials and the gap between production volumes and industry requirements widens every year.
Worth reading in full.
Michael Deacon notes that, for all their climate anxiety and Greta Thunberg’s chastening of oldies, young people are actually the worst offenders when it comes to air travel and ‘green’ behaviours:
It turns out that the young are wrecking the planet, too. In fact, they may be doing even more to wreck it than their grandparents.
Just look at the results of a new poll by the Civil Aviation Authority. It found that those aged 18-34 fly a lot more frequently than those aged 55 and over. In the past year, almost three quarters of the former group travelled by plane, compared with only half of the latter group.
This may seem unexpected, given that members of Greta’s generation are always telling pollsters – and everyone else who will listen – how terrified they are about climate change. But then, perhaps we shouldn’t be so surprised. In 2023, a poll by YouGov found that young adults did less recycling than Baby Boomers. They were also less likely to save water, wash their clothes at low temperatures, and switch off electric lights when leaving a room.
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