Managing Aotearoa New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions from aviation
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Date
2024-01-01
Open Access Location
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
Rights
(c) 2023 The Author/s
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Abstract
Prior to COVID, the global aviation industry was growing rapidly. Growth has now resumed and is predicted to continue for at least the next three decades. Aotearoa New Zealand has particularly high aviation emissions and has been on a very rapid growth path that is incompatible with the Paris Agreement on climate change. Government, intergovernmental, nongovernmental, academic and industry sources have proposed technological innovations to address aviation emissions. These include sustainable aviation fuels, electric and hydrogen powered aircraft, and increases in efficiency. We review these and assess that none of them will lead to a significant reduction in emissions in the short to medium term. In addition, we demonstrate that even very aggressive uptake of new technology results in the New Zealand aviation sector exceeding its share of the carbon budget as determined by the Paris Agreement. Therefore, we examine the fundamental drivers of growth in aviation: the tourism and airport industries, emissions pricing and substitutes, and the distribution of air travel. Governance of this sector is challenging, but it is changing rapidly. We conclude that a national aviation action plan needs to be developed and implemented based on the ‘Avoid/Shift/Improve’ framework in use in other areas of transportation planning.
Description
Keywords
Aviation emissions, sustainable aviation fue, climate justice
Citation
Callister P, McLachlan RI. (2024). Managing Aotearoa New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions from aviation. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand. 54. 4. (pp. 412-432).