Two years after it had become the second airline in the world to announce plans for going carbon neutral by 2050, New Zealand’s flag carrier, Air New Zealand, has scrapped its 2030 carbon emissions reduction targets.

In a statement, the airline announced the decision, citing lags in producing new planes, a lack of alternative fuel and “challenging” regulatory and policy settings.

The reversal by Air New Zealand is the first major high-profile admission by an airline and a major company that it would not be able to meet its targets for 2030, even though the airline has maintained that it will meet its overall target of going carbon neutral by the year 2050.

In 2022, the Air New Zealand had declared itself the second carrier in the world to have its plans validated by the United Nations’ Science Based Targets initiative aviation framework. It pledged a 28.9 pc reduction in carbon emissions by 2030, from a 2019 baseline, with a 16.3 pc drop in absolute emissions. It was due to begin progress reports on its 2030 emissions targets during this financial year.

Greg Foran

Now the airline says that it is still committed to a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, in line with the Paris Agreement. “We will establish new near-term emissions reduction targets that would better reflect the challenges relating to aircraft and alternative jet fuel availability,” Greg Foran, CEO, Air New Zealand, said in the statement.

Airline said that global manufacturing and supply chain issues could slow the introduction of more fuel-efficient planes into Air New Zealand’s fleet and the affordability and availability of alternative jet fuels and global and domestic policy settings were also outside the airline’s direct control.

Though currently, air travel makes up about 2.5 pc of global carbon emissions, it is  one of the most carbon-intensive activities per passenger. Production of more efficient planes is behind schedule and improvements in reducing fuel consumption are advancing extremely slowly.

Other airlines listed on the SBTi database as having removed their commitment to near-term emissions goals included United Airlines, the German carrier Lufthansa, Britain’s easyJet, LATAM Airlines in Chile and Japan Airlines. Analysts have long warned that the volume of sustainable fuel being produced is a small fraction of the total demand.