Aotearoa is one of the highest aviation emitters per capita in the world, with competition for cleaner fuels and delays on new planes among the reasons. Photo: RNZ / Diego Opatowski
Air New Zealand says its failure to persuade government to require airlines flying here to replace some of their fossil fuel with sustainable fuel was one reason it ditched its own 2030 climate target.
A spokesperson for the airline told a conference that by 2030, nearly every overseas port it flies to will require it to fly home with a proportion of sustainable fuel - but there is no government commitment to a similar mandate for airlines landing in New Zealand.
The airline made international headlines when it dropped its ambitious target of cutting emissions by 29 percent by 2030 - a target based on what is required to keep the planet within 1.5C of heating.
The airline confirmed it had kept a separate target, to use 10 percent sustainable fuel (in place of fossil fuel) in its planes by 2030.
A visibility emotional head of sustainability for the airline, Kiri Hannifin, fronted a climate conference in September and described her team's grief at realising the airline would not meet its ambitious 2030 climate target.
She said her team feared it would lead to other companies moving more slowly to decarbonise, which she said would be "the worst outcome for all of us."
"It's a terrible thing to have to admit and it's been very hard for our team, my team in particular, who follow science and know what needs to happen," she said.
"We just didn't have enough control of the levers we needed to pull to meet the target."
Hannifin made it clear the lack of a government mandate was not the only major factor.
She said the final blow came when problems at Boeing delayed delivery of the airline's new 787s.
Meeting the target while still flying fuel-hungry 777s would have meant replacing up to quarter of the airline's fuel with sustainable fuel, which the company was not confident it would be able to source, she said.
Air NZ says New Zealand is slow to require reductions in fossil fuel use by airlines. A Turkish Airlines Airbus A321-231 with biofuel livery, takes off from Barcelona Airport, in 2022. Photo: AFP/ NurPhoto/ Urbanandsport - Joan Valls
British Environmentalist Sir Jonathon Porritt was the head of the airline's external sustainability panel when it adopted its 2030 target.
He said there was huge demand for sustainable fuel from all major airlines as they try to cut their emissions, and being located in New Zealand made it harder to get an affordable supply.
Synthetic fuel regulations the right thing to do - sustainability expert
Porritt said, to Air New Zealand's credit, it refused to source biofuel from potentially destructive sources such as palm oil.
But there was only so much alternative feedstock - like used cooking oil - to go around. Meanwhile, all airlines were determined to grow while also cutting their climate impacts.
"Pretty much everybody is still geared to the desirability and inevitability of more bums on more seats in the air, in every single market around the world.
"This pursuit of sustainable technology as a way of squaring the circle is actually pretty desperate," he said.
Sir Jonathon - who left his role advising Air NZ before it dropped its 2030 target - said the solution was to throw support behind synthetic fuel, which does not compete with food or forests for land.
Synthetic fuel is made from green hydrogen and carbon dioxide, and Sir Jonathon said requiring airlines to use it would be "smart and principled".
But because it costs more, governments are unlikely to make its use mandatory, he said.
"What you would see is increased costs on every airline, everywhere in the world. And that is problematic because what politicians and the industry are fighting against is anything that is seen to constrain demand."
Synthetic fuel requires a large supply of renewable electricity, to produce the green hydrogen it needs.
Channel Infrastructure, the owner of the former Marsden Point oil refinery in Northland, is exploring making synthetic fuel with a partner.
Read more:
- Agreement signed for a biorefinery at Marsden Point
- Sustainable aviation fuel production could be in Marsden Point's future
The company's chief executive Rob Buchanan said initial work was going well, but the partnership was not ready to make an announcement about whether the project was going forward.
"We continue to work very hard with Fortescue on that project, the electricity requirements are very significant - about 300MW - so they're doing quite a bit of work on that," he said.
Biofuel is among the uses for rapeseed, an important global brassica crop - shown in bloom in Brandenburg, Germany, in April 2024. Photo: AFP/ DPA - Patrick Pleul
Channel has signed a separate deal with another company, Seadra Energy, which is looking at repurposing parts of the old oil refinery to refine biofuel, with Qantas as a project partner. It hopes to make Marsden Point a biofuel hub.
As yet, neither project is fully confirmed, leaving New Zealand with its status as one of the highest aviation emitters per capita in the world.
By 31 December 2024, the Climate Change Commission is due to release advice on whether New Zealand should count international aviation in its climate targets.
Currently, only domestic flights are counted towards New Zealand emissions.
