IATA’s Vision is for air transport to achieve carbon-neutral growth in the medium term and to develop zero-carbon emission technology within the next 50 years.
Both airfreight and sea freight operators are active in environmental responsibility. Air carriers have improved their fuel efficiency and CO2 emissions by 20% over the past 10 years. They are determined to be at least a further 25% more fuel-efficient by 2020 compared with 2005, mainly through huge investment in fleet renewal.
Shipping has already significantly improved its carbon performance through efficiencies of scale and fuel consumption. Although sea freight achieves a high level of carbon-efficiency per weight transported compared with airfreight, it uses some of the cheapest and most polluting fuel in the world. Shipping currently accounts for 4.5% of global carbon emissions, which is expected to grow to 6% by 2020. Air transport represents 2% of global carbon emissions and the IPCC forecasts this to grow to 3% by 2050. Air transport is growing by 5% per year, but efficiencies mean that emissions from aviation are growing by some 3% per year. However, a growing carbon footprint is unacceptable for any industry. Therefore IATA is active in addressing these concerns with solid proposals to reduce air transport’s carbon footprint.
IATA Cargo strategy for the Environment is currently based on three main activities:
- Facts: Make available to the industry facts and research on air cargo and the Environment
- Position: Communicate and lobby based on a clear fact based position on the Environment
- Action: Take action to deliver best practice green supply chains (IATA Green Freight)