February 20, 2020

Delta Airlines: we’re going carbon neutral!

topic:	Sustainable Development
located:	USA
editor:	Yair Oded

Last week, Delta Airlines announced that it is committed to going carbon neutral and intends to invest $1 billion over the next decade to offset its carbon emissions - both from its flights and ground operations. Delta is the first major global airline to publicly commit to reducing its carbon footprint, and the company’s announcement was met with excitement.

But what does this announcement actually mean for the environment?   

While aviation currently accounts for only 2 per cent of global CO2 emissions, the sector’s share in contributing to global warming is expected to skyrocket in the coming decades. As reported by the International Council on Clean Transportation, CO2 emissions from aviation have risen by almost a third over the past five years, and are predicted to triple by 2050. 

Just to get a sense of the magnitude of aviation’s impact on the environment - a 2019 Guardian report concluded that a flight from London to New York emits more CO2 than the average person in 56 different countries generates over the course of a year. 

Under its new plan, Delta would invest in technologies that capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, gradually increase its purchasing of fuel-efficient aircraft, and contribute to large-scale reforestation and wetlands restoration efforts in order to sequester CO2.

Delta will not invest in battery-operated, electric flights, claiming this technology is still far off in the future. 

Yet, Delta has not been clear about how exactly it is going to cancel out its carbon footprint. The tactics mentioned above are general and unspecific. 

Furthermore, while Delta’s announcement makes it seem as though the airline blazed a trail by committing to go carbon neutral, it is, in fact, incumbent upon airlines in most countries to dramatically decrease their carbon footprint. Back in 2016, over 70 nations met as part of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a UN agency, and committed to submit annual reports about their airlines’ CO2 emissions. The nations also committed to have their airlines reach carbon neutrality by 2030; those who fail to do so will incur dear fines while operating in other countries. 

In an Op Ed for Forbes, Dan Reed, a writer specialising in airlines and related industries, argues that Delta will not be spending an extra $1 billion on reducing its carbon footprint. The airline, Reed highlights, simply framed the expenses it was already due to make in order to expand its business and comply with the ICAO guidelines in a way that makes it seem more environmentally conscious than it actually is. 

Reed further points out that nature-based operations to sequester CO2 by corporations are often “sketchy” and highly inefficient. Reed claims that calculations regarding how many trees, for instance, need to be planted in order to cancel out the emissions released by an aircraft are often imprecise, and cites scientists’ concerns that the rate of trees’ growth (to the point they can absorb significant amounts of CO2) can’t possibly compete with the rate of emissions generated by planes across the world. 

Reed also argues that more often than not, carbon offset operations by large airlines are marred by corruption, inefficiency, and broken promises. He believes that the only way for airlines to truly go carbon neutral would be to completely replace their fleets with new, fuel-efficient planes, as opposed to slowly phasing them in and the old ones out. This move, as Reed predicts, would never be approved by airlines’ executives and shareholders, considering the prohibitive costs involved with purchasing new airplanes. 

While it is important for airlines to invest in eco-friendly technologies and make an effort to reduce their carbon footprint, it would be foolish and irresponsible of us to act as if our increasing demand for air travel options is of no consequence.

We cannot clamour for environmental justice while believing that our consumption habits could continue unimpeded, be it our rate of travel, our intake of meat or our purchasing of new clothes. This is particularly true for those of us residing in industrialised countries; we must come to terms with the fact that our lifestyle and choices will have to be reviewed and, ultimately, altered. 

Image: skeeze / Pixabay