2nd May 2019

The Committee on Climate Change (CCC), the Government’s official advisers, published its latest report today. It is recommending that the UK becomes ‘net-zero’ on CO 2 emissions by 2050. This does not there will be no CO2 emissions but those which are emitted will need to be balanced by taking carbon out of the air or burying it:  ” The CCC target is for “net zero” because some activities, such as flying and farming, will unavoidably produce some emissions in 2050. But these will be balanced by taking carbon out of the air by growing trees or burying CO2 under the ground ” .

The report goes on to suggest on aviation: “Air travel will become more expensive because of the slow development of alternatives to polluting kerosene to power planes. Air passengers may be required to pay to offset the costs of their emissions from 2035. The cost of doing so could reach £55 by 2050 for an economy flight to New York and £25 to Malaga. The report encourages frequent flyers — the 15 per cent of people responsible for 70 per cent of flights — to catch trains and cut down on long-haul travel”.

Read the report:  https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/net-zero-the-uks-contribution-to-stopping-global-warming/

Read the HACAN summary of the aviation section: https://hacan.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Committee-on-Climate-Change-Report-aviation-summary.pdf