United Airlines (UAL) Aims to Become 100% Green by 2050

In an environment-friendly move, United Airlines Holdings (NASDAQ:UAL), Inc. UAL announced that it intends to reduce carbon emissions generated by its fleet by 100% over the next 30 years (2050).

Climate change has become a rising concern in recent years as we continue to pay the price for increase in carbon footprint that has led to adversities like heat waves, increasing sea levels, forest fires and accelerated natural resource depletion. Therefore, sustainable development is the need of the hour to conserve environmental resources for future use and limit the above-mentioned adversities.

Per CEO Scott Kirby (NYSE:KEX), "As the leader of one of the world's largest airlines, I recognize our responsibility in contributing to fight climate change, as well as our responsibility to solve it." Kirby recognizes that carbon offsets aren't sufficient to completely cancel out emissions.

The carrier intends to reach its goal of becoming 100% green by making a multimillion-dollar investment in a carbon-capture joint venture (1PointFive) between Occidental Petroleum's OXY subsidiary Oxy Low Carbon Ventures and a private equity firm Rusheen Capital Management. 1PointFive's focus is to curb the rise in global temperature by physically removing carbon dioxide from the air, using Direct Air Capture technology.

With this goal, the carrier became the first airline globally to have announced a commitment to invest in Direct Air Capture technology, which is used for capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. We remind investors that in 2018, United Airlines became the first U.S. airline to have pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% within 2050.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

United Airlines currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Zacks Transportation sector are Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. KNX and Herc Holdings (NYSE:HRI) Inc. HRI. Both Knight-Swift and Herc sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today???s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Long-term expected earnings per share (three to five years) growth rates for Knight-Swift and Herc Holdings are pegged at 15% and 12.6%, respectively.

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