Perched on its own continent, half composed of first- or second-generation migrants, Australia is hugely dependent on aviation, both economically and socially. With Australians among the world’s most frequent long-haul fliers, we have a large stake in the success or otherwise of rapidly decarbonising aviation, one of the hardest industries to abate. The challenges are many, but so there are many engineering attempts to overcome them. Already, aviation accounts for about four per cent of global warming. But that share is expected to swell rapidly as other sectors decarbonise. In fact, given projected growth in air travel, by 2050 aviation could represent up to 22 per cent of global emissions, according to Deloitte.
John Bowler
1mo
Can you please work on making aviation affordable and reliable first?
Steve Harrison
1mo
hydrogen.
Retired from Department of Defence
1moActually, that claim, that "aviation accounts for about four per cent of global warming", is not based on science. Aviation might account for 4% of CO2 emissions from human activity globally, but after that, only assumptions exist. An entirely separate issue is that Australian aviation is almost totally dependent on imported aviation fuel. So the question that should be asked has two parts: 1. Should Australia exploit its own resources of crude oil to reduce its dependency on imported aviation fuel, or 2. Spend the next decade attempting to develop an alternative aviation fuel that will probably produce as much CO2, but in some way that is acceptable to the ideological left?