The aviation industry sets its own targets, yet, despite being incapable of blaming anyone else for their failure only one was met.
Easyjet set a target of reducing their fuel burn per passenger km by 2015 and succeeded in this aim. We should not give Easyjet too much credit, however, as they promised to build an “ecojet” which would emit 50% less carbon – this they havent even started.
Unfortunately, this is the point. It is not possible for airlines to just tinker around the edges, they must make enormous changes to how they operate and the planes they fly – and they must make these changes in the next decade an a bit. Waiting for some future plane, that will always be a few decades away is not enough.
Virgin promised on several occasions, that by 2020 10% of its fuel would come from biofuels. This target was not mentioned again until 2021 when they moved the goalposts to 2030.
Easyjet must be commended for its success, but it is nowhere near enough. Cutting 3% is a good start, but we need the majority of the rest over the next few decades.
Reducing how much we fly, is the only way that currently exists to cut carbon from our flying footprint. One suggestion is to have an increasing level of tax – your first flight of the year could get little or no tax, but with this levy increasing dramatically the more you fly.