Sustainability and Environment
Report: Aviation's Net-zero Goal Not Easily Achievable
Aviation must take a multi-pronged approach to reach net-zero and even then the path will be fraught with technological and practical difficulties.
AIN Logo

A new report from the UK’s Royal Society concludes that no single path to achieving net-zero carbon in aviation exists and the avenues now being explored are all fraught with technological and practical difficulties. Published today, the “Net Zero Aviation Fuels: Resource Requirements and Environmental Impacts” paper focuses on four sustainable alternatives to jet-A: hydrogen, ammonia, synthetic efuels, and biofuels.

For the report, Cardiff University professor Graham Hutchings led a working group that assessed these options against the following considerations: the equivalent resources that would be required to replace fossil fuel, a lifecycle analysis and non-carbon-dioxide environmental impacts, likely costs, and modifications and replacement needed to implement the option.