Could the EU’s net zero aviation targets spell disaster for the bloc and a boon for ours?

The EU’s 2050 net-zero targets could shift air transport east and bankrupt Europe’s aviation sector, industry leaders said at the Airlines for Europe (A4E) aviation summit in Brussels last week, AFP reports. The shift to sustainable aviation fuels and carbon emission taxes would cost the EU’s aviation sector some USD 629 bn by 2050, the news outlet quotes A4E interim chief Laurent Donceel as saying. Investments toward designing and manufacturing aircraft catering to sustainable aviation fuels could cost the EU some USD 820 bn between now and 2050, Dutch-based research firm SEO noted in a recent study.

EU climate targets may see our aviation sector growing: The EU Commission’s target to source 63% of aviation fuel from sustainable sources, including biogas, by 2050, coupled with carbon taxes levied for trips departing from and to the EU, could see intra-European passenger numbers shrink 14% by 2050, according to SEO. Markets such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey — where accountability measures on carbon monitoring, disclosures, and verification are not as strict as in the EU — could capitalize on their strategic locations and relatively lax environmental regulations to become transport hubs, the newswire quoted former President of France’s National Aviation Federation Alain Battisti as saying at the event.

India is trying to make up for its missed renewables target: India plans to tender green energy projects producing a combined 250 GW by March 2028, Reuters reports, citing a government memo. The projects will contribute to India’s goal of cutting emissions by 45% from its 2005 levels. While the country missed its target of installing 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022, it is now turning its focus on climate investments and hopes to boost its renewable and nuclear energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030. As of February 2023, its renewables capacity — excluding hydroelectric and nuclear power — stands at 122 GW. Including hydro and nuclear would bring the capacity up to 175 GW, according to government data cited by Reuters.

Timeline: India plans to issue 15 GW of non-hydro or nuclear renewables — solar, wind, and low-carbon hydrogen — and 15 GW of nuclear and hydro power in each of the first two quarters of the current fiscal year. Another 10 GW of tender will be issued in the following two quarters, according to the memo.

The share of clean sources in India’s power generation is set to double by 2047: The country’s share of energy generated from renewables will double by 2047 to reach 90% of total generated capacity, Federal Power Secretary Alok Kumar said, according to Bloomberg. A combination of reducing coal generation and speeding up the roll out of green projects will together contribute to this goal.