Major airlines collaborate to explore...

DACCS could address air travel emissions that can't be eliminated directly

Airbus and a number of major airlines – including Air Canada, Air France-KLM, Easyjet, International Airlines Group, LATAM Airlines Group, Lufthansa Group and Virgin Atlantic – have signed Letters of Intent (LoI) to explore opportunities for a future supply of carbon removal credits from direct air carbon capture technology.

Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage (DACCS) is a process that sees CO2 emissions filtered and then removed directly from the air using high powered fans. It is then stored in geologic reservoirs. Since airlines can’t capture CO2 emissions released into the atmosphere at source, DACCS would allow the sector to extract the equivalent amount of emissions from its operations.

Airline bosses hope to meet their net zero pledges with DACCS, which can be pre-purchased as verified and durable carbon removal credits starting in 2025 through to 2028. The airlines see DACCS as just one of the ways they can meet their promises around CO2 reductions, alongside increasing use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).

The carbon removal credits that would be generated by this process will be issued by Airbus’ partner 1PointFive, a subsidiary of Occidental’s Low Carbon Ventures business and the global deployment partner of direct air capture company Carbon Engineering. Airbus’ partnership with 1PointFive includes the pre-purchase of 400,000 tonnes of carbon removal credits to be delivered over four years.

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Airbus executive vice president of Communications and Corporate Affairs, Julie Kitcher said: “We are already seeing strong interest from airlines to explore affordable and scalable carbon removals. These first letters of intent mark a concrete step towards the use of this promising technology for both Airbus’ own decarbonisation plan and the aviation sector’s ambition to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that carbon removal is required to help the world go beyond climate mitigation and to support the achievement of net-zero targets. In addition, according to the Air Transport Action Group’s (ATAG) Waypoint 2050 report, offsets (mainly in the form of carbon removals) will be needed – between 6% and 8% to make up any remaining shortfalls in emissions above the goal.

For more information, visit www.aircraft.airbus.com