Do you need to fly for your holiday?

LONGING for a bit of sun? I certainly am. It’s about this time of year that sun-starved, rain-soaked Brits, having trudged with grim determination through months of grey skies and driving rain, start to dream of a week or two with a hot sun beating down from a blue sky.

If you’re lucky enough to be able to afford a holiday abroad this year, it will almost certainly include a flight.

Commercial aviation has had extraordinary growth. In the Fifties Heathrow had just 30 to 50 flights a day compared with 1,350 today with new airports adding to the numbers.

But planes add significantly to the emission of climate change gases by burning jet fuel, which is made up of a mix of hydrocarbons in the higher atmosphere. Alongside CO2 aircraft emit other gases and particles which can affect atmospheric composition and cloudiness.

The Department for Transport estimates that these additional gases have doubled the CO2 warming effect. The Climate Change Committee estimates that without change aviation is likely to be the UK’s biggest source of CO2 emissions by 2050.

But decarbonising aviation is not easy. Electric-powered planes are still years away from viability and the longevity of plane fleets means that it takes a long time for newer, more sustainable aircraft to come into service.

The Government has committed to net zero for aviation by 2050 in its snappily titled “Jet Zero Strategy”. The plan is to meet this target through a mixture of policies which include “system efficiencies” — improving the efficiency of our existing aviation system, including airports, aircraft and airspace, sustainable aviation fuel made from biofuels and “markets and removals”, which is government speak for removing any residual emissions from the atmosphere.

Dr Cathie Wells, from the University of Reading, whose PhD research was on making flight paths more fuel efficient, a key system efficiency, explains that air traffic control gives airlines a flight path which takes into account areas where there is no radar coverage, hence planes cannot be tracked by air traffic control.

For safety planes must fly at least 10 minutes apart but this is no longer necessary in many areas — improved technology means that flight paths can be calculated considering not just safety but also optimising fuel efficiency using prevailing winds.

Dr Wells’s research shows that over the Atlantic, this can cut emissions per flight by as much CO2 as is emitted by 1,307 UK citizens in a year.

Her findings have been taken up by NATS (formerly National Air Traffic Services), which is trialling the new system.

Virgin Atlantic has announced that it will be operating the world’s first net zero flight from London to New York this year. It will be fuelled by sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which is made from waste oils and fats such as cooking oil. And the UK is building five SAF production plants.

In the meantime, what can individuals do? Quite a lot, in fact. Firstly, consider if you could make your journey by less carbon-intensive rail travel. Per mile, rail emits about one fifth of the emissions of flying. A website called The Man in Seat 61 (www.seat61.com) has an enormous amount of advice on train travel in Europe and worldwide.

Our family is trying this for our holiday to Austria this summer, travelling by rail via Paris. It will take longer for sure but we will have the advantage of a day in Paris to break the journey and a chance to travel through the Arlberg Pass, one of the world’s most scenic rail routes.

Secondly, if you take a flight then offset the emissions by supporting projects to reduce CO2 emissions or take CO2 directly out of the atmosphere.

Dr Wells points me to the United Nations’ carbon offset platform, which is an excellent and trustworthy site where you can purchase carbon credits measured in tonnes of CO2 equivalent to offset or compensate for the emissions produced by your flight (www.unfccc.int). Some airlines also offer this as part of your flight cost.

Happy holidays.