China’s Civil Aviation Green Development Plan Sets 2030 Carbon Targets

The dual-control framing — capping both total and intensity — is the notable shift, since intensity-only targets can let absolute emissions rise with traffic growth. The per-passenger airport metric also pushes obligations down to individual facilities, not just airlines. For sustainable aviation fuel suppliers and low-carbon aviation technology developers, this signals a policy-driven demand channel in the world's second-largest aviation market. The open question is whether the 2030 milestones survive contact with post-pandemic traffic recovery, and how the regulator translates the scheme into enforceable limits on individual carriers and airports.