Effectively decoupling emissions from air travel growth will require policy-makers and the industry to look beyond simple economic instruments:
•Technology progress will require collaboration across the value chain and across countries.
•Governments will need to play a role in funding fundamental research.
•Political will is perhaps one of the most important mechanisms for delivering emissions reductions from infrastructure improvements.
•The lack of implementation of a Single European Sky is one glaring omission in policy action to reduce emissions from air travel.
IATA is actively promoting collaborative efforts on technology and is lobbying hard for Governments to improve infrastructure. On operations there is a major initiative to spread best practice. More needs to be done in the face of the challenge of climate change, but the airline industry is already stepping up its efforts with a bold vision of zero emissions and an important future milestone of carbon-neutral growth. The key lesson for both policy-makers and the industry is to look beyond simple economic instruments for mechanisms to bring about an effective reduction in emissions from air travel