Watch: Turning to nature to tackle emissions
The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented disruptions in global aviation. But as signs of recovery take hold, the industry finds itself still facing the challenge of reducing carbon emissions and meeting the growing consumer demand for airlines to reduce their environmental impact. Nature-based projects, like planting trees and protecting forests, offer the best way for the aviation industry to reduce its carbon impact today and at scale, though cutting-edge solutions such as facilities that scrub CO2 directly out of the atmosphere hold great promise longer-term, according to Shell’s top climate adviser.
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“For a sector like aviation to go from an emitting sector to non-emitting sector would require a different set of technologies, and they don’t exist,” said David Hone, Chief Climate Adviser for Shell. “So, the [sustainability] journey that aviation will be on is one of developing new technologies, and also recognizing that the way to manage emissions and reach this zero-point is to purchase offsets from other entities.”
“The scalable solution that exists today is what we call nature-based solutions,” Hone said in a recent interview with Joel Makower, Editor-in-Chief of Greenbiz.com. “The simple one, growing a tree. That can be relatively quickly scaled up. Now, a billion tonnes is a very long journey, and it's going to take some years for that to happen. But every indicator is there that the potential for scale is available.”
Turning to nature to tackle emissions
Description:
Joel Makower interviews David Hone on how airlines can manage emissions through nature-based solutions.
Title: Nature-Based Solutions Transcript
Duration: 3:36 minutes
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Flightpath: Navigating the Route to Sustainable Aviation
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This episode
Nature-based solutions
{Joel Makower sits onscreen. Facing him, turned away from the camera, is David Hone. The camera alternates between speakers.}
Joel Makower
I’m Joel Makower executive editor at Greenbiz.com. we’re talking about what will it take to make aviation environmentally sustainable. I’m talking with David hone the chief climate change advisor at Shell. Are there enough offsets available today to neutralize the emissions from aviation?
David Hone
What’s important to recognize first of all, the journey that aviation needs to go on. So aviation is an emitting sector like with every sector of the economy today. And we know because of the climate issue and because of the structure of the Paris agreement, emissions have to go effectively to zero in as little as 30 years. Now, for a sector like aviation, going from an emitting sector to a non-emitting sector, would in theory require completely different set of technologies. And they don’t exist. So the journey that aviation will be on is one of, first of all developing some new technologies but also recognizing that the way to manage emissions and to reach this zero point through a net zero emission strategy is to purchase offsets from other entities. So the aviation sector is at least a gigaton of emissions today so that’s a billion tons of emissions. And that is significantly larger than the markets today that could supply the equivalent in terms of offsets, and the scalable solution that exists today is what we call nature-based solutions. Its effectively afforestation, reforestation, and various other nature-based solutions to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through natural processes. The simple one, you know growing a tree. That could be relatively quickly scaled up. Billion tons is a long journey and it’s going to take some years for that to happen. But, every indicator is there that the potential for scale is available.
Joel Makower
So are nature-based solutions the only kinds of offsets available for aviation?
David Hone
Nature-based solutions represent a very scalable option for aviation today and they’re important because what they represent is a removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere that equates to the emission of carbon dioxide from a flight. So you’re balancing emissions with a sink. The questions are there other ways of doing that? There’s a technology which is at demonstration scale today in Iceland called air capture, they’re actually capturing co2 directly from the atmosphere, scrubbing the carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and compressing it and then storing it geologically in subsurface in Iceland. So as well as storing carbon in the biosphere through nature-based solutions, you could look at mechanisms to store carbon geologically. But you’ll have to equate that to the emissions into the atmosphere from aviation. So I think in the shorter term, nature based solutions represent a real measurable and viable option. But I think in the longer term, as the aviation industry starts to interface with these accounting structures of the Paris agreement there’s a much wider variety of offsets available.
Joel Makower
David Hone is the chief climate change advisor for Shell. Thanks so much David.
David Hone
Thank you very much.
Though aviation’s carbon emissions dropped in 2020 due to COVID-19, as flight resumes, emission levels will return and within a few years, likely exceed the 915 million tonnes generated in 2019. That means offsets must work on a large scale to truly mitigate the industry’s carbon impact. Part of the solution will eventually rely on new technologies, but efforts that protect or re-develop natural ecosystems – known as nature-based solutions – can make vital contributions today. In fact, nature-based projects could provide over a third of the cost-effective climate mitigation needed by 2030 to stabilise warming to below 2°C.
“Nature-based solutions represent a very scalable option for aviation today,” Hone said. “And they're important because what they represent is a removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere that equates to the emissions of carbon dioxide from a flight.”
Nature-based solutions can also deliver benefits beyond CO2 removal, such as offering alternative sources of income to local communities, improving soil productivity, cleaning air and water, and maintaining biodiversity.
Looking beyond nature
In addition to these solutions that store carbon in the biosphere, methods that sequester it geologically are also showing promise. In Iceland, for example, an innovative approach called air capture is being taken to pull CO2 directly from the atmosphere and store it underground. But such experimental methods could take years or even decades to work on the scale aviation requires.
“In the short-term, nature-based solutions represent a real measurable and viable option,” Hone said. “But I think in the long-term, as aviation starts to interface with the accounting structures of industry regulations and agreements, like the Paris Agreement, there's a much wider variety of offsets available.”
Watch: Sustainable fuel – a low-carbon solution for aviation
Though the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on aviation, it hasn’t changed the reality that the industry must figure out how to fly and emit less. Sustainable aviation fuel holds great promise in helping the aviation industry reduce carbon emissions, but carbon pricing and other policy measures are likely needed to help spur the investment to scale production to meaningful levels, according to Shell’s top climate advisor.
Watch: How can aviation usher in a “low emissions age”?
The aviation industry is running out of time to deploy carbon-mitigation tools, such as sustainable aviation fuel, and consumers are increasingly demanding that airlines take action today. David Hone, Shell’s top climate adviser has warned that the short window in which to act poses a risk that the sector will fail to hit its goal to halve CO2 emissions by 2050 relative to 2005.
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Watch: Nature’s role in tackling aviation emissions
Airlines are feeling pressure to curb CO2 emissions today. Until sustainable fuel and technology solutions are deployed to help avoid and reduce emissions directly, the industry will also need comprehensive carbon offset programmes if it is to meet its net emissions reduction targets. The Nature Conservancy’s Chris Webb points to airlines’ opportunity to benefit from the most effective carbon sink “technology” available today: nature itself.
Watch: What will it take to scale sustainable aviation fuel?
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the aviation industry hard. But as airlines chart a path to recovery, part of their return must include reducing the industry’s contribution to climate change. Bryan Sherbacow, Chief Commercial Officer of biofuel producer World Energy, discusses what it will take to help sustainable aviation fuel scale to the point where it will be competitive with conventional jet fuel.