Denmark launches plan to make domestic aviation sustainable
Domestic aviation has a carbon footprint of 133.000 tons of CO2 yearly (pre-Covid), but remains indispensable for Danish business and tourism as the fastest method of cross-country transportation. The demand for domestic aviation is not going to go away, but we need to make it green.
A major challenge for sustainable aviation is that green jet fuel is significantly more expensive than fossil jet fuel. Hydrogen, for instance, which has often been proposed as a sustainable alternative to conventional fuels, costs about four times as much to produce an equivalent amount of energy. Consequently, the transition towards sustainable domestic aviation will be financed through a flat passenger fee of 13 DKK (transit passengers exempt).
"This plan delivers on the Prime Minister’s pledge to first create a domestic flight route, before making domestic aviation fully green. Though starting domestically, we hope to have a global impact by paving the way for the development of sustainable aviation fuels. We have already invested a significant amount of money in boosting the supply of sustainable fuels and now we are creating a demand-pull that kicks-start our domestic market."
The Danish government also intends to allocate 1.8bn DKK to increase the demand for sustainable aviation fuels. By 2025, financing will be provided for the first sustainable domestic route, and there will be a model to make every domestic route sustainable by 2030. In addition, the government has already invested 3bn DKK in the production of sustainable fuels, and the green tax reform also aims to make sustainable fuels more competitive through the taxation of fossil fuel.
The 2025 sustainable domestic flight route is projected to be amongst one of the first of its kind, making Denmark a pioneer of the decarbonization of global aviation.
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