What would it take for aviation to become climate-neutral by 2050?

Climate neutrality for global aviation is the official goal of both ICAO and IATA, yet today’s action is not at all on track to reach this goal.

EPFL researchers Sascha Nick and Philippe Thalmann model a trajectory for aviation to reduce its CO2 emissions by 90% by 2050, down to a level where all residual emissions can be removed from the atmosphere without crowding out other sectors that also need negative emissions. Implementation is based on a proposed international governance mechanism and a negative emissions fund for airlines (NEFA).

Pricing CO2 at $230 per ton enables climate-neutral aviation from 2030, investing $3.3 trillion over 40 years in high-quality carbon removal projects with biodiversity and societal co-benefits. As aviation is one of the most difficult sectors to decarbonize, this is a key step to net zero.

Read the full paper here!