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COPENHAGEN, Denmark: Denmark has announced that it will do away with fossil fuel used in all domestic flight operations by 2030, in a bid to meet its climate goals.
Denmark Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, in a speech on New Year’s Eve, highlighted her keenness to eliminate all fossil fuel used in domestic air travel, while admitting that plans are still being developed to reach her goals.
Denmark is eyeing a 70 percent reduction in total CO2 emissions by 2030, in comparison with those recorded in 1990.
“To travel is to live, and therefore we fly,” Frederiksen noted, while declaring her strategy.
When other countries in the world are too slow, then Denmark must take the lead and raise the bar even more,” Frederiksen declared.
Frederiksen admitted that it would be challenging to not operate fossil fuel-powered domestic flights, though research teams, as well as businesses, were seeking to attain this target.
Meanwhile, Aerospace company Airbus made public its intent to go full throttle in the development of aircraft powered by hydrogen, with plans of operating them by 2035.
Denmark is seeking to achieve its climate goals by the use of renewable energy-derived hydrogen for operating aircraft.
Nonetheless, it is not known whether the technology would be in place by 2030.
Sweden, too, made an announcement that it would cease operating fossil fuel-powered domestic flights by 2030, with the Scandinavian nation also hopeful of seeing green international air travel by 2045.
In early 2021, the Swedish government declared its intent to hike airport charges for aircraft deemed to contribute serious pollution.
In the meantime, France is moving forward in prohibiting domestic air travel when trains could be traveled to the same destination in less than 150 minutes.
The steps can likely impact travel between Paris and Lyon, Bordeaux and Nantes, among other cities.
