“Will flying ever be green?” asks your long read (6 April). The more urgent question is: will flying be green in the next seven years? The answer is no. As the article outlined, there are potential alternative fuels and new technologies that could, one day, make flying zero emission. But we must halve all greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 to retain a realistic hope of keeping the global temperature rise to 1.5C or as close as possible. That’s simply not going to happen in the aviation industry. And that’s why the Group for action on Leeds Bradford airport (Galba) is taking the government to court.
Both Galba and the climate charity Possible have been given permission for judicial review challenges against the government’s reckless and irresponsible jet zero strategy. This strategy is nominally intended to cut aviation emissions, but all independent analysis, such as the recent Royal Society and Imperial College reports, concludes that jet zero’s “techno-fix” proposals will not work within a climate-relevant timescale.
Jet zero is a charter for business as usual, which means increasing emissions. As Christopher de Bellaigue says in his article: “The most logical way of reducing aviation’s contribution to global warming … is for people to fly less.” In the next seven years, it’s the only way. The government’s own experts on the climate change committee have repeatedly said that we cannot allow an unfettered expansion of flying. We hope our legal challenge will force the government to listen to independent experts, not the aviation industry.
Nick Hodgkinson
Group for action on Leeds Bradford airport
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