Air New Zealand axes climate goal on sector’s green struggle

Air New Zealand Ltd. scrapped its 2030 climate target as the aviation sector grapples with a lack of cleaner fuels and more efficient aircraft, a rare admission of the challenges the industry is facing to decarbonize.

The carrier has been hampered by the availability of new planes and “the affordability and availability of alternative jet fuels,” the Auckland-based company said in a statement Tuesday.

“Potential delays to our fleet renewal plan pose an additional risk to the target’s achievability,” Chief Executive Officer Greg Foran said in the statement. “It is possible the airline may need to retain its existing fleet for longer than planned due to global manufacturing and supply chain issues.”

Air New Zealand had aimed to cut carbon intensity by 28.9% by 2030 from a 2019 baseline, and has now begun work on a new near-term target, the company said. It will continue to aim to hit net zero by mid-century.

The airline’s shares declined 0.9% in Tuesday trading as of 2:19 p.m local time.

Emissions from aviation are forecast to rise 82% by 2050 under BloombergNEF’s base case Economic Transition Scenario, which assumes nations and companies rely on technologies that are currently economic. That would see the industry’s share of global carbon dioxide pollution jump to about 6.7% from around 2.7% today.

Demand for air travel is continuing to rise, while adoption of the sector’s main decarbonization tools — sustainable aviation fuels and more efficient aircraft — has lagged. The share of SAF used by six major airline groups that report consumption is lower than 1%, BNEF said in a report last month.

Potential other solutions including the use of hydrogen as a fuel or electric aircraft remain far from commercialization. 

Air New Zealand will also leave the Science Based Targets initiative, the world’s main organization focused on reducing corporate emissions, according to its statement. 

SBTi lists 31 airlines that have put forward targets to align with efforts to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5C, though has removed some of those commitments — indicating they don’t meet the organization’s criteria, that detailed plans haven’t been provided within a set time-frame, or that the companies have withdrawn the objectives.

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