This week, the JAL Group was awarded the "Eco-First" title by the Ministry of the Environment of Japan for the airline’s various environmental conservation initiatives. These initiatives include fleet renewal, engine washing, the use of ecological, advanced flight operation methods such as User Preferred Route and Continuous Descend Approach, and the development of commercially-viable biofuel. What’s more, JAL has been spreading its environmental efforts further afield through its contribution to projects such as forest-fire surveillance, atmospheric air research and environmental education. So with the “Eco-First” must come an "Eco-First Pledge”; for JAL, this means achieving a 23% reduction in CO2 emissions in the year 2020, compared with levels in 2005.

Elsewhere, the South-African airmotive company ADEPT has stepped up the plate with the launch of their new light aircraft engine at Virginia Airport this week. The new liquid-cooled aircraft engine can operate on either biofuel or liquid petroleum gas, resulting in an engine with significantly lower lead, Nitrous Oxide and CO2 emissions, as well as reduced noise levels.

Innovations such as this are a reflection of the hard work that has been taking place throughout the aviation industry in the collective efforts to combat climate change – a subject that is now present in all discussions within the industry. An ICAO Colloquium on Aviation and Climate Change held last week brought together stakeholders from across the aviation industry as well as key government representatives to discuss the impact of aviation on the environment, what measures are being taken and what more can be done. The event provided a great opportunity for players from across the industry to demonstrate their own initiatives, providing a platform to share best practices and incentivising other businesses to follow suit. One example comes from Qatar Airways who, at the Colloquium, announced plans to be the first airline to be operating with 100% synthetic jet fuel by 2014 – a fuel made from a mix between gas-to-liquid and biomass-to-liquid blends, reducing the consumption of non-renewable petroleum based fuel and as such reducing the airline’s emissions of CO2.