Australia's tourism industry could be put at risk if it does not take immediate action to address aircraft emissions, according to a leading climate change expert.
EY sustainability services partner Adam Carrel will sound the alarm in Sydney on Thursday, telling participants at Flight Centre's Illuminate event the entire travel industry will need to work together to make a meaningful impact.
And he warned making air travel environmentally friendly would be "immensely difficult", would require massive research in Australia, and would need passengers to get on board too.
His warning comes after Australia's leading airlines, Qantas and Virgin, committed to the industry target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and Qantas promised to cut emissions by 25 per cent within the next eight years.
Air travel is estimated to make up 3.8 per cent of Australia's total emissions, with domestic flights alone accounting for 1.6 per cent.
Mr Carrel said airlines, airports and other parts of the aviation industry could no longer afford to look away or postpone reducing their carbon output.
"We rely on people to fly (to Australia) so we are exposed to a take-off in the flight-shaming movement," Mr Carrel said.
"We don't want to fall off the radar for tourism and we don't want Australia to become a carbon bridge too far.
"We have a disproportionate reason to act because we are so far away from large parts of the world."
The flight-shaming movement, or flygskam, began in Sweden in 2018 and discourages consumers from air travel in order to reduce their personal carbon footprint.
The travel industry's transition to an environmentally friendly market would be "tricky" but was possible, Mr Carrel said.
It would involve airlines using biofuels while waiting for the development of hydrogen and electric-powered planes, educating passengers on carbon offsets, and investing in "carbon positive" projects in other parts of the travel industry.
Hotels, for example, could partner with airlines and do more to lower their carbon emissions.
"The hotel industry's approach to sustainability so far as been largely tokenistic," Mr Carrel said.
"The industry may argue that the consumer is not ready to pay, but we can't wait for a critical mass of consumers to arrive at this conclusion by themselves. We need to the industry to make their way."
Earlier this year, Qantas committed to cutting 25 per cent of its carbon emissions by 2030, with a plan to use more fuel efficient planes and 10 per cent sustainable fuel.
Both Qantas and Virgin have committed to net-zero emissions by 2050.
Some airlines have committed to greater cuts, however, with Finnair pledging to cut its 2019 net emissions in half by 2025.
Mr Carrel said the commitments showed progress, but greater investments in research and development were needed urgently, particularly in biofuels.
"When an industry has a moment like this one they always think they have more time," he said.
"The industry will be inclined to say 'We've just got on our feet after COVID, or there are so many inflationary challenges, or geopolitical issues are so uncertain, or the markets are jittery and what if we have another credit crunch?'. There is no time to wait for a geo-politically benign period."
The Illuminate event, which will also feature talks from Virgin Australia and Rex Airlines executives, will be held in Alexandria and streamed online.
