A close reading of Ryanair's strategy shows the company has no coherent strategy to stay within national or science-based carbon budgets or meet the EU’s likely 2040 target of reducing emissions by 90 per cent. Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA WireFirms, organisations and even state bodies are all busying themselves with climate and sustainability reporting these days. In theory, measuring emissions better should help reduce them.
Take a pair of jeans for example. There is the energy involved in making the jeans, also that for weaving the fabric, the threads and manufacturing the zips and buttons; the transport back and forth of all these materials, and the consumption of energy and resources all the way to the end consumer. The more you look, the more climate and environmental impacts you find. So lines must be drawn and this is where legal responsibility tends to trump ethical responsibility.
In Ryanair’s case, the climate impact of each passenger kilometre is relatively low, but a close reading of its strategy shows that the company has no coherent strategy to stay within national or science-based carbon budgets or meet the EU’s likely 2040 target of reducing emissions by 90 per cent. In fact, all of Ryanair’s impressive-sounding targets are set against a backdrop of an unsustainable growth in passenger numbers and overall emissions.
The company has no strategy for managing travel demand sustainably and in fact reports heightened public awareness, a shift away from air travel and the potential for climate-related constraints on short-haul flights as potential risks for its revenues. There is no sense reading this report of an industry that might be facing an existential challenge, since the cost of sustainable aviation fuel – even if it were available in time – is likely to be quadruple that of kerosene.