The airline sector makes a significant contribution to climate change, it currently accounts for 2 per cent of global CO2 emissions, yet many are utilising carbon offsetting rather than creating plans that reduce their own flight emissions, and research shows that the industry needs to reduce its own emissions significantly in order to limit warming to below 2C and not to rely on offsets.

The new research comes from the Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI) at the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute, backed by over $13tr of investors such as the Environment Agency Pension Fund, BNP Paribas and Legal & General Investment Management.

The research has considered airlines’ carbon management practices and their emissions performance. Delta, United, Lufthansa and ANA Group (Japan) are the leaders on carbon management. However, ANA Group, along with Japan Airlines, Korean Air and Singapore Airlines, has the highest emissions intensities.

Faith Ward, Co-chair of the Transition Pathway Initiative on behalf of the Environment Agency Pension Fund, part of the Brunel Pension Partnership, said, “Investors have a clear message to the aviation sector: When it comes to carbon performance they must be in it for the long haul. That means setting stretching emissions reduction targets to 2030 and beyond, and ending a reliance on offsetting. It’s clear from TPI’s research that this is not currently the case.”

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