This is according to a new plan they have, apparently, published this morning.
Please forgive my cynicism but I do not believe them.
There is no evidence that carbon offsets work.
I doubt that significant changes in fuel to save carbon in aircraft are possible.
And I seriously doubt better air traffic management is going to save a lot unless the number of planes in the air declines dramatically and stacking before landing disappears.
This is, in my opinion, an industry in denial. Mass flying and net zero carbon are incompatible. The age of globe-trotting to find the sun is over, and that is what around 90% of all flying is about. We either come to terms with this, or we destroy the chances of human life on earth.
If I never fly again, I will be happy. Not only is there no fun in flying, but the cost is far too high. The result is that in my opinion airlines are carbon insolvent: they will never raise enough funding to make themselves carbon neutral and so cannot survive.
The entire point of Sustainable Cost Accounting is that the auditor – which really means Richard Murphy – gets to declare whether a company is carbon insolvent. And if we have auditors – ie, Richard Murphy – who just declare that because they don;t believe it therefore carbon bankruptcy then we’re going to have an economy limited by R Murphy’s ability to process technological change.
Tht is, not much of an economy.
The actual way to do this is of course to allow folk to try things out an see which method wins rather than depending upon the intellect of a retired accountant from Wandsworth. Or even The Sage of Ely.
As Tesla just pointed out:
Longer distance flights, estimated as 80% of air travel energy consumption (85B gallons/year of jet fuel globally), can be powered by synthetic fuels generated from excess renewable electricity leveraging the Fischer-Tropsch process, which uses a mixture of carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H2) to synthesize a wide variety of liquid hydrocarbons, and has been demonstrated as a viable pathway for synthetic jet fuel synthesis….
Maybe air travel will be a little more expensive as a result. Maybe the world in 25 years will be a little richer than it is now too. Who knows?
Well, we’ll find out at least, as long as no one ever does implement Sustainable Cost Accounting of course.
Still, we have a task for our newly climate change acceptable aircraft…..come friendly bombs and fall on Ely……
As Madsen Pirie of this parish has pointed out, e-fuels seem like a useful solution to jet engines and air travel.
But Madsen isn’t listening.
The age of globe-trotting to find the sun is over
is the real agenda. Arguing with these people over mere facts is like trying to have a debate with Jim Jones in the middle of a Kool Aid party.
We can’t live with them.
The thought of Spud sunbathing in the Bahamas is weirdly fascinating
I read about a huge H2 deposit in Spain last week. They’ve known about it for decades as they went looking for gas. It’s never been exploited (no use for it?), but now it could be used for making synthetic fuel without first producing the H2. The expected cost per kg is half that of H2 from gas.
However it seems that the deposit may never be drilled as it may get caught up in laws forbidding gas extraction..
“As Tossler point out…”
Fuck me, how much in damned handouts does the great panjandrum want!!
Where is this excess renewable electricity you speak of? There is none and no one has any plans to build it.
The Spud is correct that carbon offsets are bollocks however they will be accepted so the very rich can keep flying.
The age of globe-trotting to find the sun is over, and that is what around 90% of all flying is about.
The majority of passenger-miles are ‘leisure’ (i.e. not specifically business), but not 90%. And that’s by no means all ‘bucket and spade’ sun-seekers, lot’s of folks travelling to visit relatives, for example.
Most of my flying has been on business trips to places that I should never otherwise have wished to visit. My longest trip home took 25 hours (including drive to airport, normal processing, changing planes at second airport, getting out of Heahrow and being driven home, so not just flight time). By train it would have, at best, taken most of a week (maybe more than a week, depending on connections).
“Globe-trotting to find the sun” – Murphy’s ignorance sometimes gets irritating.
I wonder if the LHTD took the train to Dachau. Unlikely to have been in a cattle wagon though.
Spud is just repeating British establishment orthodoxy:
“We don’t want more people from Sheffield flying away on cheap holidays.” – Conservative government minister Oliver Letwin.
One assumes cvnts in smegma-stained clothing taking frivolous leisure trips in filthy coal-fired steam engines to look at (feathered) birds will be barred from their fun-filled journeys too?
“We either come to terms with this, or we destroy the chances of human life on earth.” Who are we going to call to save us???….. coming over the horizon, it’s Lord spudcup wielding his trusty spudonomics. Truly we are saved!!
@bravefart . re staem engines. i read recently because of this environmental bollocks there a shortage of coal supplies for steam engines. The biter bit. I suppose that they’ll have to convert the engines to run on oil.
found the link https://news.sky.com/story/more-than-150-heritage-steam-railways-facing-potential-critical-shortage-of-coal-12589865
You could have saved real estate by saying it’s a bad idea because Murphy came up with it. That’s what happens when you use someone else to pass your accounting exams while spending the duration in the pub (before he got banned)
I would echo what Steve says and make the point that this is the reality of ‘Net Zero’ – you won’t be able to fly. On that basis Murphy is a rare Green who is open about reverting back to the 19th century.
@moqifen: Who you gonna call? Spudbusters!
If you can spare the time, do pop over and vote on this blog. I want to keep air travel so I can top up my tan.
The largest known deposit of natural gas in Canada is not only undeveloped it was recently described as a carbon bomb that would destroy the climate if it was developed.
The First Nations in the area are being given more control over resource rights so will be interesting to see if they are more prepared to cash in than the current government
I suspect that if the NZ and Australian governments ban flying for leisure that they will be quickly voted out.
This is an area where revealed preferences are blindingly different to stated ones.
All the politicians fly regularly, even as they tell us not to.
For those who do not avail themselves of the wisdom from our host here and others over at the Adam Smith blog, I posted this on this topic yesterday:
“powered by synthetic fuels generated from excess renewable electricity”.
Question – What excess renewable energy?
One gentleman replied that there was indeed ‘excess’ energy, to which I replied:
Before I posted my original comment I checked Gridwatch. Electricity demand over the last 12 months has not dropped below 20GW. The UK has 23GW of installed wind with a capacity factor of around 35%, so 8.35GW. If we are using wind to deliver demand instead of fossil fuels there ain’t any ‘excess’.
And looking into these ‘E-Fuels’, they rely on ‘Direct Air Capture’ – Carbon Capture and Storage by another name, taking the CO2 produced during processing and use out of the air and burying it. If that is the solution, why don’t they just do it now and carry on using petrol?
Answer = Money.
Well, over Easter, I flew over to Perth to see my brother and his family. Needless to say, I didn’t offer to pay Qantas more for their use of ‘green’ fuel.
But the latest green news here in Oz is that the state governments here on the east coast are teetering on the brink of shutting down the coal burners. The only reason they haven’t done it already is that the Gaia-raping turds like me would vote them out if they shut off our electricity.
Still, Dutton has finally found the balls to oppose the proposal to insert a ‘voice’ for the Abos into the constitution. The media claim 53% are in favour. Guess who’s one of the 47%. So perhaps he’d have the guts to stand up for keeping the lights on too.
I understand you have something like the ‘voice’ in Canada BniC. Perhaps you could tell me how it works?