The sky’s the limit: Can green flying ever take off?

The head of one of the world’s biggest airlines has described carbon offset schemes as a ‘fraud’, writes Nick Ferris. So what should the industry be doing to tackle pollution, while causing minimal turbulence?

On 20 July there were more planes in the sky than ever before on a single day – 262,000 of them (iStock/Getty/The Independent)

The end of last month marked an aviation milestone: on 20 July, there were more planes in the sky than ever before on a single day – 262,000 of them – as recorded by website Flightradar24.

At the same time as these kerosene-burning planes made their journeys, tens of thousands of tourists were being forced to flee holiday resorts, as wildfires fuelled by the climate crisis ripped across southern Europe.

Unlike electric vehicles for road travel, aviation is one of the hardest sectors to tackle (Getty Images/iStockphoto)