At the Aspen Ideas: Climate conference Tuesday in Miami Beach, Delta Air Lines announced a new set of climate goals to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The goals include plans for Delta to step up its use of more climate-friendly alternative fuels, switch its ground crews over to electric vehicles by 2050 and introduce its first airplane that uses a “revolutionary” new energy source by 2035.
Delta won’t say what that revolutionary technology might be. Last year, Delta announced a partnership with Airbus to research hydrogen-powered planes, with the goal of putting one into service by 2035. But Delta Chief Sustainability Officer Pam Fletcher said the company wasn’t committing to hydrogen fuel and remains open to other options.
“The solution for sustainable long-haul aircraft of the future is not yet clear,” she wrote in a statement. “That’s why we’re encouraging disruptors to come to Delta with their ideas for entirely new ways to approach aircraft and propulsion.”
In the meantime, Delta plans to phase out fossil fuels in favor of lower-carbon sustainable aviation fuels. The airline plans to use at least 35% sustainable aviation fuel by 2035.
“When you look at our net-zero commitment by 2050, the best tool that we have at our disposal at this moment is sustainable aviation fuel,” Fletcher said onstage at the New World Center
‘Revolutionary’ flight technology
Burning jet fuel accounts for about 98% of Delta’s carbon emissions, the company wrote in a press release — and there’s no clear way to eliminate those emissions entirely. “A fully sustainable long-haul aircraft has yet to be invented,” the company wrote.
Some startups are working on developing battery-powered electric planes. But batteries are heavy, which makes it hard to design a plane that can carry enough battery power onboard for a long-haul commercial flight. Delta, for instance, invested $60 million last year in Joby Aviation, a company developing electric aircraft — but so far, Delta is only using helicopter-like aircraft from Joby to ferry customers on short-range commutes to and from city airports.
Other companies, like Airbus, are betting that hydrogen fuel will power long-haul commercial flights in the future. Hydrogen is a dense, liquid fuel like traditional fossil fuels. But unlike standard aviation fuel, it doesn’t release carbon when it burns. If manufacturers make hydrogen using renewable energy, it could be a low-carbon or zero-carbon fuel.
Global hydrogen fuel production, however, is still much smaller than airlines’ fuel consumption, according to the International Energy Agency. The agency noted in a 2019 report that hydrogen is “almost entirely supplied from natural gas and coal,” not renewable energy sources, which means hydrogen production “is responsible for annual CO2 emissions equivalent to those of Indonesia and the United Kingdom combined.”
Sustainable fuels cut short-term emissions
While manufacturers are researching and designing new zero-carbon planes, airlines can reduce their carbon emissions in the short-term by using so-called “sustainable aviation fuels.” This is a broad category of fuel that ranges from corn-based ethanol to biofuels made from used cooking oil that produce fewer carbon emissions than standard jet fuel (up to 80% less carbon, depending on fuel type, according to the nonprofit Environmental and Energy Study Institute).
Sustainable aviation fuels are “drop-in” fuels, meaning airlines can use them without changing their planes’ engines or their fuel storage tanks. They can have an immediate impact on emissions.
These fuels account for less than 1% of the fuel Delta now uses. Delta wants to raise that figure to 10% by 2030 and 35% by 2035.
But sustainable aviation fuels, like hydrogen fuel, still aren’t produced in big enough quantities to meet airlines’ needs. Delta pointed out in a press release that manufacturers don’t make enough of these fuels in a year to “fuel an airline Delta’s size for a single day.”
“When it comes to eliminating our climate impacts from flying, that’s a hard problem,” Fletcher said in Miami Beach. “But I am optimistic because … I’ve seen hard problems before and the best way to get hard problems addressed is to bring them to the forefront, set goals and get the brightest minds thinking about them, working on them and making progress.”
This climate report is funded by Florida International University, the Knight Foundation and the David and Christina Martin Family Foundation in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald retains editorial control of all content.
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