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http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/32060| Title: | Flight from reality: Sustainable aviation, Jet Zero, and the technofix |
| Authors: | Dale, G Moos, J Holmes, AB |
| Keywords: | aviation;sustainability;climate crisis;net zero;sustainable aviation fuel;technofix |
| Issue Date: | 7-Oct-2025 |
| Publisher: | Routledge (Taylor and Francis Group) |
| Citation: | Dale, G., Moos, J. and Holmes, A.B. (2025) 'Flight from reality: Sustainable aviation, Jet Zero, and the technofix', Contemporary Social Science: Journal of the Academy of Social Sciences, 0 (ahead of print), pp. 1 - 29. doi: 10.1080/21582041.2025.2566800. |
| Abstract: | This paper argues that rising aviation emissions, which are disproportionally driven by the wealthy, pose a serious threat to climate goals. Using the UK’s Jet Zero strategy as a case study, it explores how policymakers and industry promote speculative technologies—efficiency gains, electric and hydrogen aircraft, sustainable aviation fuels, carbon capture, and offsetting—to justify continued aviation growth. We critically assess these claims: electric aircraft are limited to short routes; hydrogen faces major storage and infrastructure barriers, and green hydrogen remains scarce. SAFs, often derived from land-intensive crops, risk deforestation, biodiversity loss, and higher net emissions. Second generation SAFs, such as used cooking oil, are scarce, and power-to-liquid is speculative and prohibitively expensive. Carbon capture is unproven at scale, and offsetting enables airlines to claim reductions without cutting actual emissions. These “solutions” align with a political agenda that prioritises economic growth and airport expansion. We argue that this techno-optimism delays real action. Rather than gambling on future breakthroughs that may never materialise, policymakers should pursue immediate demand-reduction strategies and support a just transition—ending frequent-flyer incentives, shifting short-haul flights to rail, removing aviation fuel subsidies, and retraining workers for low-carbon sectors. |
| URI: | https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/32060 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2025.2566800 |
| ISSN: | 2158-2041 |
| Other Identifiers: | ORCiD: Gareth Dale https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4991-6063 |
| Appears in Collections: | Dept of Social and Political Sciences Research Papers |
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| FullText.pdf | Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. | 1.19 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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