On December 1, United Airlines flew the first passenger plane running on 100% sustainable aviation fuel from Chicago to Washington. The carrier’s CEO, Scott Kirby called it “a significant milestone” in the company’s effort to go green and decarbonize its operation.
However, critics doubt the sincerity of the airline. For starters, even with a limited supply of SAF, United Airlines is adding new routes, increasing flights, and even investing in supersonic aviation.
The airline industry is responsible for 2.5% of global carbon emissions. It is projected by the UN to triple by 2050. Even if airlines committed to net-zero emissions, technologies to help decarbonize the industry are still a long way to go.
In 2020, United promised to go “100% green” by 2050. Kirby says that climate change is “the biggest issue facing our generation”. Also, it has criticized carbon offset programs as “just a fig leaf”. He said that such programs are used by CEOs “to write a check, check a box, pretend that they’ve done the right thing for sustainability when they haven’t made one with of difference in the world”.
United’s Efforts to Go Green
United is currently investing in projects to go green. This includes an investment in Fulcrum Bioenergy which is a firm that turns household garbage into jet fuel. According to IATA, SAF can drop emissions by 80%.
The carrier is also funding projects that take out carbon directly from the air. According to Lauren Riley, United’s managing director for global environmental affairs and sustainability, “Direct air capture is going to play a massive role”. United plans to invest in the project 1PointFive that is building a direct air capture plant. Riley said that “One of these plants will remove as much CO2 as 40m trees”.
But despite these efforts, scaling up the technologies is challenging. Worldwide, there are only 19 DAC plants. It collectively removes 100,000 tons of CO2 yearly. Unfortunately, it’s a long way to go from International Energy Agency‘s estimate. IEA estimates that 85 million tons of CO2 should be removed by 2030 to prevent the climate from warming 1.5°C.
And when it comes to SAF, SAF only makes up 0.1% of aviation fuel. Plus, it costs three to four times more than traditional jet fuel.
Experts Are Skeptical of United’s Green Efforts
Cait Hewitt, policy director of Aviation Environment Federation, said that “Putting these fuels into supersonic jets…would be an insane use of scarce resource”.
Dan Rutherford who leads the International Council on Clean Transportation’s aviation and marine program said that United investing in supersonic jets “is just completely baffling”.
Some experts believe that the only way to achieve net-zero emissions is to reduce flying. The “Flight Shame” movement is getting traction in the last few years. In 2019, KLM encouraged people to consider doing video calls or taking trains instead of booking a flight. When Riley was asked whether United will ever consider flying less, she said “I like to look at it as flying sustainably”.
