Debate, discussion and decision: the cornerstones of a global summit dealing with issues as complex as new aircraft and engine technologies and from where we will get all the feedstock for sustainable biofuels. We have certainly had a lot of debate today. When we sat down to design the programme for this summit, we deliberately [...]

One of the most important parts of this Summit is the interaction that the industry has with organisations outside of aviation, but in the environmental field. Jake Schmidt is with the US environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council. I agree fully that all industries – including aviation – need to focus resources on reducing their [...]

One of the recurring themes of the Aviation & Environment Summit this year is the availability of sustainable biofuel feedstocks, as Christian Dumas from Airbus explains.

  “100 aircraft flying on biofuels can save 500,000 people from poverty,” said Peter Bakker, Chief Executive Officer of TNT, to a packed room at the Aviation and Environment Summit in Geneva, discussing how TNT is using biofuels . TNT is running a project to produce aviation biofuel from jatropha. To produce the jatropha sustainably, [...]

Willie Walsh, Chief Executive Officer of British Airways, believes that the industry has to continue funding environmental research, despite concerns that losses and weak forecasts might result in airlines cutting back their environmental programmes.

My boss, Paul Steele (Executive Director of the Air Transport Action Group and organiser of this year’s Summit) has been expressing his satisfaction at how impressive the delegate count has been – we have over 350 delegates this year, from all parts of the industry and beyond.

Jennifer Holmgren, Honeywell UOP, speaking about aviation biofuels at the Summit (Photo by Justin Hession/Getty for the Air Transport Action Group) We’re getting to the end of the day and it has been tremendously exciting to see all the delegates interacting and listening to the comments from the sessions. One of the major topics focused [...]

Willie Walsh, Chief Executive Officer of British Airways, addressed the Aviation and Environment Summit about best operational practice for airlines. Walsh recognised that the economy had replaced the environment as the key public concern in recent months, although he highlighted that this change did not translate into changing priorities for airlines. The environment remains a [...]

According to biofuels specialists at the Aviation and Environment Summit, sustainable biofuels should be a recognisable part of the fuel mix by 2015. Billy Glover, Managing Director, Environmental Strategy for Boeing, explained that there are a variety of solutions (including jatropha, camelina and algae), with the recent test flights showing that biofuels have moved from [...]

These were the words of Alexander ter Kuile, Secretary General of the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation at the opening of the Aviation and Environment Summit 2009 in Geneva. This philosophy was confirmed by other leaders in the aviation industry as they came together to review their progress on last year’s commitment towards carbon neutral [...]