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As we’re an island nation at the bottom of the world, air transport plays a critical role in connecting our people to the world, and the world to us. It’s essential to New Zealand’s trade, investment and tourism industries. But these benefits are counterweighted by the impact the aviation industry has on the climate. Air transport as a global sector contributes 2% to 4% of global emissions.
Flight NZ0TM is about acknowledging the impact of aviation on the climate and taking genuine action to decarbonise our operation.
“It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land. Widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere have occurred…”
“…Many changes in the climate system become larger in direct relation to increasing global warming. They include increases in the frequency and intensity of hot extremes, marine heatwaves, and heavy precipitation, agricultural and ecological droughts in some regions, and proportion of intense tropical cyclones, as well as reductions in Arctic sea ice, snow cover and permafrost…”
“…From a physical science perspective, limiting human-induced global warming to a specific level requires limiting cumulative CO2 emissions, reaching at least net zero CO2 emissions, along with strong reductions in other greenhouse gas emissions.”
Net zero carbon emissions means achieving an overall balance between carbon emissions produced and carbon emissions taken out of the atmosphere. Evidence suggests that net zero carbon emissions is the state at which global warming stops. There is no current technology mix that can enable the aviation industry to reduce all emissions to absolute zero by 2050. While our focus is on deep and widespread gross emissions reductions, we will also need to rely on high integrity and permanent carbon removal solutions outside our sector to achieve our goal.
