I noticed a number of interesting stories in media this week. An article in EurActiv on Wednesday featured an interesting interview with Raffaello Garofalo, the Executive Director of the European Algae Biomass Association (EABA). EABA was launched on 5 June to address the lack of legal framework in Europe for the production of algae-to-biofuels.  Garofalo outlines the potential of algae as a source for biofuels since it does not need productive land that can be used for food, a common accusation that is made of biofuels. It also grows at exponential rates in polluted seawater where most other organisms die. There are even processes by which algae can algae absorb the pollution as a nutrient, allowing the water to be cleaned up and returned back to the ocean. To read the interview in full, click here.

Another article that caught my eye concerns the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). According to a report to be published by RDC Aviation and Point Carbon, the aviation sector could face a shortfall of 77 million tonnes of CO2 when it enters the EU ETS in 2012. The report finds that at the current spot price of €14.40 per tonne of CO2, the cost of having to purchase the necessary credits is likely to be in the region of €1.1 billion, with British Airways and US carriers facing the largest shortfalls.

On a slightly more optimistic note, Gulf Air has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Bahrain Government’s General Directorate for the Protection of the Environment and Wildlife, in a major step forward in the airline’s corporate social responsibility initiatives. Gulf Air Head of Corporate Social Responsibility Sameer Has-san Al Saeed told Gulf Daily News that "It (the MoU) has to be done now because if we leave it any longer then we will lose business; it’s as simple as that." Staying in the same geographical region, Qatar Airways has been elected as a member of the International Air Transport Association’s Environment Committee (ENCOM) and also recently joined IATA’s new carbon offsetting programme.  I think all these examples shows that the industry is only stepping up its environmental initiatives in the current economic climate, showing that an economic downturn provides an even greater incentive for a reduction in carbon emissions.