Now is the time to invest in sustainable aviation

Some influential books published over the past 20 years planted the idea that it is impossible to substantially reduce the impact of aviation on climate change, whereas it is not too difficult to eliminate other anthropogenic sources of carbon dioxide. As a result, it is often argued that the only way to reduce aviation’s impact is to stop or at least greatly reduce the amount of flying we do. David Zingg is a professor in the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, where he leads the Centre for Research in Sustainable Aviation. Photograph courtesy of David Zingg Since these books were written, it has become increasingly clear that those authors overestimated the difficulty of reducing aviation’s climate change impact, and underestimated the challenge of reducing other sources of carbon dioxide emissions. In fact, there is a path to greatly reduce the carbon emissions from aviation that involves new fuels, such as sustainable aviation fuels and hydrogen, in combination with step improvements in aircraft energy efficiency to mitigate the increased cost and limited supply of these new fuels. Whether the sector can get all the way to net zero depends primarily on an abundant supply of green ground-based energy, an issue that is common to virtually all sectors that require energy. Unfortunately, despite the societal benefits of aviation, the Government of Canada is not making the investments required to address the urgent need to reduce aviation’s impact on climate change. Investments in artificial intelligence, for example, vastly exceed those in sustainable aviation. Government investments of this type must address both economic and overall societal benefits; we currently have far too little emphasis on societal benefits and too much on perceived economic benefits. Presumably, the AI investments are justified based on expected future job creation from that sector. However, investments in sustainable aviation will prevent the loss of good jobs for Canadians that already exist. Moreover, the private sector is quite happy to invest in AI because of huge potential profits, whereas an investment in sustainable aviation is less about getting rich and more about preserving a critical sector. The government should not be investing like a venture capitalist in areas where there is already plenty of investment. Rather, it should be investing in areas of benefit to society where other investment may be scarce. When we invest in cures for cancer, we do so not with an eye on future profits or even job creation, but because such cures would benefit many Canadians and fellow inhabitants of Earth. The same is true of sustainable aviation. The government surely has a huge stake in helping to ensure that people can continue to fly without causing climate change, as well as maintaining the many excellent Canadian jobs associated with the aerospace and aviation sectors. In addition to investing directly in Canadian aerospace companies—rather than giving tax breaks to wealthy foreign corporations—it is critical that the government support sustainable aviation research at NRC Aerospace, Transport Canada, and Canadian universities. Current government support for research is—in many cases—also investing in areas where there is already plenty of private-sector investment. Rather than trying to pick winners, the government should support a broad range of basic research so that Canada is well prepared for the next generation of challenges. The best way to attract foreign investment is to create a fertile environment for research and a vibrant post-secondary education sector such that companies investing in Canada can be confident that they will be able to find highly qualified employees. Instead, support for post-secondary education badly lags both inflation and population growth in most provinces. Moreover, Canada regularly loses talent due to inadequate opportunities for recent PhD graduates. This trend can be reversed through increased support for government research labs such as the National Research Council, and for postdoctoral fellowships at Canadian universities. It is particularly troubling that the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Discovery Grants program is increasingly supporting research in perceived hot areas where there is plenty of private sector support at the expense of other topics of great importance, such as sustainable aviation, for which other sources of funding are not plentiful. Fortunately, it is not too late. If the government can place more emphasis on supporting goals such as sustainable aviation where there is little likelihood of major private sector investment, as opposed to investing in areas that are already popular with private-sector investors, we can create an aerospace sector that leads the world in reducing aviation’s impact on climate change. The time to act is now. David Zingg is a distinguished professor of computational aerodynamics and sustainable aviation at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, where he leads the Centre for Research in Sustainable Aviation. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for research in the design of environmentally friendly aircraft in 2004. The Hill Times