Advanced BioFuels USA – Delta and Other Firms Are Struggling to Meet Sky-High Climate Pledges

by Steven Mufson (Washington Post) Some corporations started out using their sustainability goals as a marketing tool, underestimating the challenges. Now they face charges of “greenwashing” and even litigation. -- Delta Air Lines has embraced one of the corporate world’s most ambitious targets for lowering carbon emissions. In 2020, the airline vowed to invest $1 billion over 10 years to reduce its carbon footprint, with money going to new planes, the development of cleaner jet fuel, carbon offsets and hundreds of millions in savings in operations.

Early on, some companies adopted climate targets or “ambitions” for public relations purposes. Other companies have grown faster than expected. Still others misjudged the challenge of transforming their operations, or assumed they would never be held to account for their ESG commitments, shorthand for “environment, social and governance” policies.

But Delta now has a new new chief sustainability officer, Pam Fletcher, who said she opposes buying such credits.

“It was the best tool at the time. So kudos to getting some momentum on climate change," she said. "Now we are laser-focused on decarbonization in our company and industry working on the issues within our own four walls.”

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Companies could face consequences if they exaggerate their climate and ESG pledges or fail to deliver on them. They could become the target of lawsuits and shareholder battles. Or they could run afoul of new Securities and Exchange Commission regulations, which require corporate transparency about climate risks, emissions and investments in sustainability.

In disclosing their climate impacts, companies must detail their “Scope 1 and 2” emissions. These are impacts from their own operations, supply chains and energy purchases. Scope 3 emissions are more tricky to calculate and reduce because they involve the greenhouse gases created when customers use the products.

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About 10 million gallons of low-emission aviation fuel was produced globally in 2021, about 10 percent of industry’s current needs, Moody’s said. The replacement of aging planes will reduce emissions by only 15 to 35 percent, it added, noting: “There will not be a new model that materially improves fuel efficiency, or meaningfully lowers emissions, and provides the same utility in terms of number of passengers and cargo as current product lines, before 2040.”

Although Delta once saw carbon offsets as key parts of its future, the airline is now moving to directly slash its emissions, said Fletcher. It has electrified ground equipment that tow planes and carry luggage. It is buying planes that are 25 percent more efficient. It is researching sustainable jet fuels. And it is collaborating with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lab for Aviation and the Environment on a quest to prevent contrails, long-lasting clouds that trap heat and warm the earth.

To hit its 2050 goals, Delta also intends to use technologies that suck carbon directly out of the air and store it underground.

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By contrast, United Airlines was moving in this direction much earlier, and is now bragging about it. It has invested heavily in companies researching synthetic jet fuel with lower emissions, to meet the Biden administration’s goal of 3 billion gallons by 2030 for U.S. production. That will require the development of 300 to 400 synthetic fuel plants; it currently has about ten. READ MORE