Expanding aviation is incompatible with a stable climate for our children. There is currently no scalable pathway to climate-safe aviation without substantial decreases in supply and demand. Aviation has a huge effect on global warming due to the huge quantity of emissions involved in every flight, and the fact they are emitted high in the atmosphere (contrails), which makes them even more damaging. The world needs to reduce aviation, not expand it, to protect ourselves and our children from worsening climate breakdown. And small as Ireland is, Ireland’s aviation industry has a very significant role to play in this struggle, with Dublin Airport currently centre-stage.
So called “Sustainable Aviation Fuel” (SAF) is not going to do the job – it takes massive amounts of land and resources to produce small amounts of SAF, much of which is, directly or indirectly, palm oil from tropical deforestation. Hydrogen or electric planes won’t be ready technologically for decades. The only way to reduce aviation pollution within the timeframe we need to save ourselves from climate chaos, is to reduce flights. End of story.
Source: https://www.transportenvironment.org/state-of-transport/aviation
Other sectors are decreasing their emissions (although not by enough or fast enough), whereas if aviation continues with business-as-usual, aviation industry emissions are projected to continue to sky-rocket.
During COVID, it was shown that reducing flights dramatically is very possible. It just means treating the climate emergency as an emergency, which is how COVID was treated.
Children's Rights Over Flights 