Comparing sustainability practices and initiatives for achieving car-bon-neutral/more sustainable targets in airfreight
Toivanen, Päivi (2025)
2025
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025112128913
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025112128913
Tiivistelmä
Global warming is increasing the global surface temperatures on an alarming manner. Urgent emission reductions are needed to slow down the progress. Aviation sector contributes about 2% of global CO2 emissions, but the high-altitude effects amplify the industry climate impact.
Air freight is vital to global trade, but has one of the highest carbon intensities in transportation industry. Sustainable aviation era has started and decarbonizing and meeting the industry climate target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050 is of high importance for all air cargo operators.
This study examines major policies and regulations guiding air cargo sector towards net zero emissions. Comparative data analysis evaluates how carriers integrate environmental policies into long term strategies and assesses ESG performance through KPI based scoring. By comparing airlines in different regulatory environments, the research identifies the effectiveness of current initiatives and highlights best practises for improving sustainability in the air freight industry.
Results show, that while carriers report engagement in all ESG sectors, environmental, social and governance, they are at different stage of involvement. Prioritizing Sustainable Aviation Fuel investments, focusing on innovations and strong reporting framework tend to lead to better environmental results along investing in modern fleet. Key challenges of the industry include limited SAF availability, high cost of SAF, partially overlapping and ever evolving standards and lack of global standardization. Industry needs to accelerate standardization and scalable clean energy solutions to reach net zero targets by 2050.
Air freight is vital to global trade, but has one of the highest carbon intensities in transportation industry. Sustainable aviation era has started and decarbonizing and meeting the industry climate target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050 is of high importance for all air cargo operators.
This study examines major policies and regulations guiding air cargo sector towards net zero emissions. Comparative data analysis evaluates how carriers integrate environmental policies into long term strategies and assesses ESG performance through KPI based scoring. By comparing airlines in different regulatory environments, the research identifies the effectiveness of current initiatives and highlights best practises for improving sustainability in the air freight industry.
Results show, that while carriers report engagement in all ESG sectors, environmental, social and governance, they are at different stage of involvement. Prioritizing Sustainable Aviation Fuel investments, focusing on innovations and strong reporting framework tend to lead to better environmental results along investing in modern fleet. Key challenges of the industry include limited SAF availability, high cost of SAF, partially overlapping and ever evolving standards and lack of global standardization. Industry needs to accelerate standardization and scalable clean energy solutions to reach net zero targets by 2050.