COVID-19 — airline bailout must also help our kids avoid the next climate crisis

Annie Petsonk

The airline industry is reportedly requesting $50 billion to help it recover from the damage caused by the coronavirus. That is triple the cost of the post 9/11 assistance it received. There’s no question that the virus has delivered a gut-punch to aviation. Any Congressional response should give priority to helping those most affected by this crisis, including aviation workers and their families. 
But as we proceed, let’s remember the most profound lesson of the current crisis: the need to listen to the warnings of scientists. That means being mindful of the threat of climate change as Congress crafts its policy toward the airlines.
In short, we need to help those in desperate need today, while protecting our children and grandchildren from even greater harm in the future.
Since aviation produces a lot of climate pollution, assistance for the airlines should include requirements that they cut their emissions. Airlines produce more climate pollution than all but a handful of national economies — and they themselves estimate that will triple by 2050.
...That’s why any big package of assistance to the airline industry should require that in order to access funds, U.S. airlines must agree to abide by the targets they’ve already identified. They must reduce greenhouse gas emissions attributable to domestic flights by 50 percent by 2050 from 2005 levels, and meet an enforceable downward emissions trajectory with interim targets. To meet their commitments, airlines can use a combination of sustainable alternative fuels (SAF) and offsets, drawing on their own “four pillar” strategy.  
One way to enforce this commitment would be for Congress to require that airlines accessing bailout funds file and maintain plans for how to achieve these commitments — and really achieve them — as a condition of receiving and maintaining their air carrier and operating certificates from the Department of Transportation (DOT) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). To see whether these plans are being met, the carriers should publicly report their emissions and their use of alternative fuels and offsets.  

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