No Transport = No Tourism: How Aviation’s Decarbonisation Defines Travel’s Future
- ZEERO Group
- 6 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
It’s ironic that, for an industry built on movement and mobility, we aren’t moving fast enough to protect our own future.
Transport is the travel and tourism industry’s linchpin, and increasingly its vulnerability. Aviation in particular, is both vital and exposed. We attended IATA’s Aviation Energy Forum (AEF) in Mexico City and, although it’s clear that the sector is attempting to accelerate efforts under Fly Net Zero (the commitment of airlines to achieve net zero carbon by 2050), airlines do not operate in a vacuum.
Interdependence is our biggest risk, and our greatest opportunity
The global travel system is an intricate web of dependencies where every sector shapes the outcomes of the others. Aviation, rail networks, ferries, coach fleets, hotels and destinations are bound together by shared customer flows, shared infrastructure and shared energy systems. In a web like this, no sector can meaningfully decarbonise on its own: interventions in one area inevitably influence the performance of the whole. If the industry is to change, it must change as a system, not as a collection of siloed actors each waiting for the other to go first.
Aviation is the backbone of global mobility, so its decarbonisation is never going to be just an aviation issue. It is a transition that shapes the feasibility of every other travel sub-sector’s climate ambitions. It dictates route networks, visitor flows, cruise scheduling, destination investment patterns, and hotel pipeline decisions to name a few variables.
Too often, sustainability is approached as though each sector were an island, each waiting for another to lead the charge. This fragmentation is precisely why progress remains slow. As the UNDP’s Climate Promise notes, transport systems can only be sustainable when they are planned, financed, and transformed collectively.
Any travel business that benefits from transport must contribute to its decarbonisation, and I challenge you to think of a travel business that does not depend on, or at least heavily benefit from the transport sector! If mobility falters, so does tourism, so why aren’t we all rushing to come together to stir the transformation that is in all of our best interests?
Aviation’s acceleration is promising, but it needs backup
Aviation is pushing hard for solutions already, but across all levers available to aviation - operational efficiencies and nudge technologies, fleet renewal, hydrogen, electric, air traffic modernisation, no pathway comes close to the emissions reductions achievable through widespread SAF adoption in the near-term. Global SAF supply is still only a fraction of what’s required; it’s only 0.7% of global jet fuel use (2025), that's only enough to power 2 days worth of flying, but IATA's ambition is to develop this to 65% by 2050.
This is where the wider travel ecosystem must step in. We are not passengers along for the ride - we must be co-investors in our own future. SAF will not scale without tangible demand, long-term offtake agreements, stable blended finance, and cross-sector commitment. The existence of SAF will not magically get us to where we need to be - it's addressing the how, where, when and what that will drive change across the whole travel and tourism system, and make it viable.
This is why, at Zeero Group, we have spent the past five years addressing those practicalities.
HTL: A turning point the industry can no longer overlook
Our award-winning solution is a waste-to-value system addressing two critical global challenges: waste and emissions reduction through a technology called Hydrothermal Liquefaction (HTL). HTL is an operational technology capable of transforming sewage, agricultural waste, and food waste into drop-in biofuels with at least 81% lower emissions than fossil fuels.
For aviation, HTL is a proven pathway for increased SAF production. For cruise, rail, road transport, and generators powering isolated locations, HTL fuels offer flexible, low-carbon solutions that can be deployed locally. For destinations, HTL does something no other fuel pathway does at scale: it solves a climate problem and a waste problem in tandem.
Wastewater systems across the world are being overwhelmed by extreme rainfall and urbanisation, pushing pollution into rivers, oceans, and the very landscapes tourism relies upon. HTL steps in by turning these waste streams into high-value energy products, while eliminating PFAS and producing clean fertiliser as a by-product. The circular benefits cascade across entire regions.
Hotels, ports, municipalities and even remote island communities can host modular HTL units, turning a liability into local energy independence. For an industry so heavily exposed to geopolitical, supply chain, and fossil-fuel price volatility, HTL is one of the most accessible resilience measures available.
The technology exists. What we need now is the model to scale it to a level that satisfies airlines' decarbonisation commitments and their increasing reliance on SAF.
But how do we finance it?
For years, climate action in travel has been trapped in a cycle of pilot initiatives, one-off donations, and short-lived campaigns that fail to create lasting change. Our HTL deployment model breaks this cycle by using blended funding: public and private capital working together in a circular system.
● Municipalities contribute waste and infrastructure.
● Hotels, DMOs and tourism businesses contribute through small per-booking climate contributions.
● Transport operators and energy companies enter fuel offtake agreements, providing long-term demand security.
● Local partners support operations and logistics.
The result is a self-reinforcing ecosystem that funds its own transition. Through ZEERO’s shared ownership model, every business in the chain is investing into its own future.
For aviation, this blended model is particularly powerful. Airlines alone cannot fund the global build-out of SAF infrastructure, but when the load is shared across the sector, the economics shift dramatically. Shared responsibility creates shared fuel security, which directly accelerates aviation’s ability to meet Fly Net Zero targets.
If every sector adopted this logic, together we could build HTL facilities globally at the pace required: powering aviation’s SAF demand, supplying low-carbon marine and land transport fuel, strengthening waste infrastructure, and protecting destinations.
The crossroads is here, and it is unforgiving
The global consultancy ICF is right: we must join forces to scale sustainable fuels. The UNDP is right: sustainable transport is essential for climate resilience. IATA is right: aviation must accelerate the path to Fly Net Zero. None of these ambitions will materialise if we continue treating decarbonisation as someone else's responsibility.
The crossroads is not in 2050. It is not in 2030. We are standing at a crossroads, together, right now.
If we fail to act collectively, the consequences will be industry-wide: restricted flights, infrastructure failures, damaged destinations, skyrocketing insurance costs, stranded assets, and a collapse of consumer confidence in the travel industry.
If we act together, if we embrace the interconnectedness that defines us, we can build an industry that is not only low-carbon, but stronger, cleaner, and more resilient than ever.
Travel does not need more calculators, pledges, promises or polite conferences. It needs unified systems, standards coupled with boldness, courage, and it needs thoughtful, systemic collaboration at a scale we have not yet attempted.
We have the solutions at our fingertips, but they must take off now, before we all run out of runway.
Join us today, let's team up to scale up, email us on : assistance@zeero-group.com