Decarbonising air travel: why advocates of green flying are whistling in the wind

Analysis: A new report argues that measures must be taken to clean up air travel, even if they lead to soaring travel prices. Simon Calder doubts whether any government would take such an unpopular step

We all want greener air, but at what cost? (Airbus)

Flying somewhere? For your inflight reading, I would commend to you the Roadmap to Decarbonising European Aviation.

This policy paper, produced by the European Federation for Transport and Environment, presents blue-sky thinking on how to reduce carbon emissions from aviation. By deploying prodigious quantities of renewable electricity to create a fuel usable by current jet engines, the soaring impact of aviation can be curtailed.

The formidable analysis of the scale of the problem, the possible solution and the costs involved, takes about three hours to read thoroughly – conveniently the airborne time for the flight from the UK to my present location in Greece.