While the airline industry is quick to reassure that technical solutions, such as improved materials, engines and biofuels, and market-based measures can provide a fix, new research has found these to be examples of “technology myths”.
Published in the journal Transportation Research Part D, the study sheds some light on the “promise” of technical solutions through a 20-year examination of how they were reported in the media and the extent to which they were subsequently implemented. The researchers found that new airline industry technology, including airframe, engine and alternative fuel breakthroughs, have been consistently presented by the industry as essential to building an ecologically sustainable aviation industry.
But the discussion of them continues to give credence to the myth of zero-emission flight – shielding the industry from closer scrutiny of its efforts to meet emission targets and improve sustainability practices.
Read the full article: Aviation emissions are rising – and industry solutions are just technological myths
