Raising Ambition in Net Zero Flight

Rapid action is required by both industry and governments if we are to establish a pathway to achieve zero-emission aviation by 2050. Cambridge had been leading a team that has been developing the 2030 Sustainable Aviation Goals, a set of actions that, if implemented by 2030, would significantly reduce the time required to achieve zero-emission aviation. This work is supported by the Aviation Impact Accelerator (AIA), an international group of experts who are developing evidence-based, whole-system modelling tools necessary to explore how policy, technology, and system integration could be utilized to accelerate change.

The talk will preview the four 2030 Sustainable Aviation Goals, each of which has been specifically targeted to raise ambition in a particular area of aviation. The first goal is designed to provide the policies necessary to ensure that Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) can be delivered in a truly sustainable way. The second goal is designed to accelerate the demonstration of the key technologies necessary to develop a long-haul hydrogen aircraft in time to achieve a significant climate impact by 2050. The third goal is designed to unlock the aviation sector-wide changes necessary to achieve a 50% reduction in fuel burn per passenger km by 2050. The final goal is designed to deploy the large-scale contrail avoidance trials necessary to accelerate the implementation of a global contrail avoidance scheme.