Climate champions take aim at Air New Zealand’s Christopher Luxon

Sir Jonathan Porritt said Christopher Luxon had changed the tack on sustainable development issues since becoming prime minister.
photo: RNZ/Nathan McKinnon

British environmentalist Sir Jonathan Porritt said he was “foolish” to be proudly chairing Air New Zealand’s sustainability committee and that the airline was “no longer a climate leader”.

Sir Jonathan Pollitt
photo: supply

In a post on LinkedIn, the high-profile climate champion called former Air New Zealand CEO and current Prime Minister Christopher Luxon a “hypocrite” and said he felt sorry for the airline’s “fantastic sustainability team” and that New Zealanders had “watched their beloved national airline continue to damage its reputation”.

The airline Making global headlines Announced last week Abandoning 2030 emissions reduction target.

The airline had pledged in 2022 to reduce its carbon intensity by nearly 29% by 2030 compared to a 2019 baseline, but now says that is unachievable.

The company said the new planes and alternative aviation fuels needed were hard to come by and too expensive.

Sir Jonathan Porritt is not impressed with Air New Zealand abandoning its sustainability targets.
photo: AFP

Sir Jonathan has previously described Etihad as the world’s “least sustainable” airline as it sets out bold plans to tackle climate impact.

He supported Air New Zealand’s emissions reduction plans after Luxon personally brought Sir Jonathan to the airline to lend credibility to the sustainability initiative.

Previously, the two worked together on sustainable development at multinational consumer goods company Unilever. Luxon is a senior executive.

Sir Jonathan said in the post that when Luxon was prime minister, “all the tough sustainability challenges he faced while leading Air New Zealand mysteriously disappeared”.

The post also criticised Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran, saying he was moving the airline back towards a volume-driven approach and abandoning what sustainability campaigners called “realistically set” targets.

In 2015, Air New Zealand chief executive Luxon warned Threats to planetary boundaries ‘biggest threat’in the comments New Zealand Herald.

According to an interview with Pollitt, the airline’s sustainability group was his idea. Carbon News.

Luxon, then CEO, took up a paper written by the son of Arthur Porritt, a former UK Green Party MP and former New Zealand governor-general, proposing that Air New Zealand set up an environmental expert panel to chart the airline’s path to sustainability.

Porritt resigned from Air New Zealand last year.

“Sir Jonathan was an important part of that”

The airline responded to the post.

Air New Zealand said in an email: “Sir Jonathan has been a very valued member of the airline’s sustainability group for many years and we acknowledge his views.”

Air New Zealand said: “We remain committed to transitioning away from fossil fuels and we will advocate for global and domestic regulation and policy development to enable Air New Zealand and New Zealand’s wider aviation system to play its part in mitigating the risks of climate change.”

“In terms of the 2030 target, unfortunately many of the levers needed to achieve it, including the availability of new aircraft, the affordability and availability of alternative aviation fuels, and global and domestic regulatory and policy support, are outside the airlines’ direct control.”

RNZ has contacted Luxon’s office for comment.