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We are deluding ourselves if we think we can continue to ship goods and fly as we have done so far, says the Chairman of the Climate Change Commission, Dr. Rod Carr.
Carr was asked about the future of the long-distance tourism sector in an online public briefing to update people on the commission’s work.
“The emphasis must continue [switching to] low or no emission fuel, “he said. “It may cost him more to fly to Los Angeles, so be it.”
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Global warming emissions from international aviation and shipping are not counted towards countries’ emission reduction targets under the Paris Agreement, although the fairness of excluding them has been questioned.
However, Carr said that work was being done internationally to decide how this pollution should be scheduled back to particular countries, for example whether a flight from London to Sydney should be included in the UK or Australia account.
But the world needed to do more than just allocate aviation emissions: it needed to reduce them, he said.
Despite working on its sustainability, Air New Zealand is one of the country’s biggest climate polluters, responsible for emitting 3.5 million tons of carbon dioxide each year, the equivalent of around 4% of total gas emissions. greenhouse of New Zealand. It has the same carbon footprint as the entire waste disposal sector in the country (international flights in this count do not count towards the official national total).
This footprint has been growing, amid an increase in global demand for flights and a related increase in emissions from global aviation. Alternative energy sources such as hydrogen, biofuels, and electric batteries are not yet viable on a large scale.
Hagen Hopkins / Getty-Images
The Chairman of the Climate Change Commission, Dr. Rod Carr, says that aviation emissions must decrease.
The Climate Change Commission will publish its first draft of recommendations on how New Zealand should decarbonise in February, and will deliver a final set of reports to the government in May after a six-week period for comment.
The government has until December 2021 to announce what it will do in response.
Carr has made clear that questions about how much to rely on planting trees, especially pine trees, will be a key part of the recommendations. He told attendees at Tuesday’s online meeting that a “mixed tapestry” of native trees could offer a more resilient long-term carbon sink, though no official recommendations have been completed or made.
Regardless of which trees are planted, they will only buy a short window to control New Zealand’s emission sources, he said.
