Greener Skies 2009

While this may sound like a contradiction in terms, it is actually the result of an upcoming initiative by AirFrance which is aimed at cutting CO2 emissions by 5,200 tonnes per year. Air France is to introduce a new economy class seat into its short-haul cabins, a design which is 40% lighter than previous seats and gives passengers 5 to 7.5 cm more leg room. By removing the old, bulky seats, AirFrance has allowed each aircraft to weigh around 750kg less, whilst making the ride more comfortable for passengers at the same time as fitting an extra 6 people on each flight. The resulting savings of 1,700 tonnes of fuel a year is not only environmentally sound, but economically sound as well. AirFrance have also decided to replace the standard mechanical seat recline function with a natural recline to reduce the annoyance to passengers behind… get ready to test these out from the end of this month!

Elsewhere, Etihad Airways is also looking to improve the efficiency of its fleet as it begins talks with Mitsubishi over a new jet that can cut fuel consumption by up to 20% - the Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ). The aircraft’s innovative engine, aerodynamic design, and noise analysis technology allows it to reduce fuel consumption, noise and emissions and cut costs. The MRJ, which has also received interest from the Japanese and US market, will take its first test flight at the end of 2012 and start commercial operations in 2014. A prototype is on display at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi.

This week the aviation industry has had its focus on developing alternative energy both on the ground and in the air. East Midlands Airport announced plans to have four giant wind turbines built by the end of this year, which will be used to generate electricity for the airport. The turbines will generate 900 kilowatt hours of electricity – without any emissions to pollute the environment – which is enough to cover about 10% of the airport's energy needs. This project is part of a wider plan to make the airport's ground operations carbon neutral.

Airports in the US, in Texas, Dallas, Las Vegas and Houston, have the same goal of carbon neutrality, but are concentrating on a different initiative to take them there. Working together with Clean Energy Fuels, the airports have all set up major new airport compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling business. At these airports, Clean Energy will build a public access CNG fueling stations which will support the growing fleets of off-airport parking shuttle fleets, on-airport courtesy shuttle vehicles as well as taxis and private CNG fleet vehicles.

A new report has been published which outlines various case studies looking at the efforts that have been made over the past years by airports aimed at cutting emissions and improving efficiency… just so they know their efforts are not being ignored!

This week has also seen a major announcement from Qatar Airways, Qatar Science & Technology Park and Qatar Petroleum, with the support of Airbus. These companies are to jointly develop production of an alternative fuel for aircraft. Following a feasibility study into bio fuel seven months ago, the initiative now establishes the Qatar Advanced Biofuel Platform to develop the fuel. Initially Qatar Airways will be a dedicated end-user, but there is a view to opening the production out to other airlines and companies. Yet whilst deals are being struck on the ground, it is not without movement in the air - this initiative comes just months after Qatar Airways completed the world's first commercial flight powered by a Gas-to-Liquid (GTL) fuel blend. And again, efforts are not unnoticed - even Qatar's deputy premier Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah has shown excitement over the “tremendous” prospects this work has shown!

And there’s one more… monthly magazine Air Transport World selected Air New Zealand as its Airline of the Year for 2010. As well as recognition for its commitment to safety and operational excellence, the airline was specifically praised for its environmental initiatives, including conducting the world's first sustainable biofuel flight. While they are not doing it for the praise of awards, it does go to show that being an environmental leader is recognised.

Whilst the all those back at Father Christmas’s grotto are taking the opportunity to put their feet up after a hard year’s work, the aviation industry is still beavering away into the New Year with continued efforts to reach their ambitious targets. During the past year, the aviation industry has shown remarkable unity with its determination to achieve targets of a 2% annual improvement in fuel efficiency globally until the year 2050 and a 50% reduction in emissions by 2050 over 2005 levels.

One important area being pursued by the aviation industry in order to achieve these targets is the development of alternative fuels for use in aircraft. This week, Rentech – a company working on clean energy solutions – was named a company of the year by Biofuels Digest for their advancement in the commercialisation of renewable fuels. Rentech received the award in recognition of significant contributions to the development of commercially-available renewable jet fuels which have led to successful flight tests by commercial airlines. Current activities being undertaken by Rentech include the development of a renewable energy facility in California that is anticipated to produce approximately 9.8 million gallons per year of renewable fuels and 35 megawatts of renewable power from green waste. In August, eight airlines signed a multi-year agreement to purchase up to 1.5 million gallons per year of renewable synthetic diesel (RenDiesel) from this project for ground service equipment operations at Los Angeles International Airport beginning in late 2012, when the plant is scheduled to go into service. Commenting on the achievements, Biofuels Digest editor Jim Lane stated his amazement "by the progress this year in aviation biofuels” and names aviation biofuels as one of the “hottest sectors in all of renewable energy."

My organisation, the Air Transport Action Group, is all about bringing the different parts of the aviation industry together to work with their partners in the pursuit of emissions reductions and decreasing our industry's environmental impact.

Working together as an industry is incredibly important - particularly at this time of year when we have a number of very heavy travel days the world over. From Thanksgiving through Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year in a month's time, just as most people are relaxing and spending time with their family, the world's airports and airlines are at our busiest.

It is heartening, therefore, to see two industry partners working together seamlessly in this video clip. Although not in the usual way...

TAP Portugal and ANA, the Portuguese airport operator, gave their passengers more than just fast check-in service at Lisbon Airport a few weeks ago! Not to be outdone, Heathrow Airport has created the world's largest mistletoe in its arrivals hall at Terminal 5 - they expect 2 million kisses will happen under it by 31 December... Happy New Year!!

It was somewhat surreal that as we were leaving the Bella Centre last night after another day's discussions on global warming, it was snowing heavily. The city looks rather magical this morning and I can tell you this because the city is all we can see - we have been kicked out of the Bella Centre as the unexpectedly large number of world leaders (and their security) start to arrive.

Over the past few days, the restrictions on numbers entering the centre have got tighter and tighter. On Monday, some people who had not yet registered waited for nine hours in line to get in. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the non-governmental organisations were restricted to 7,000 people - from a total of 18,000 the week before. Today that has been cut back again, to 300. Those select few (including our Executive Director) are only allowed in to the first section of the centre - nowhere near the heads of state or country delegations.

Some, like the above, attempted to stay overnight and therefore not have to leave and be refused entry this morning. They were not successful.

So, where does this leave any Copenhagen Climate Agreement? The truth is, we don't know. Due to a series of tactical errors by the Danish chairmanship of the process, the talks which had been plodding along nicely were stalled in a political mess for the last two days. There are reports that the Danish Prime Minister's office is in chaos this morning. Hillary Clinton in a press conference has just said that President Obama may not come "if there is nothing for him to come for".

We are having to wait and see, just like everyone else.

The first flight of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner took place yesterday. The event was webcasted for the whole world to watch via a feed Boeing provided on their website. They had set up seven cameras around Paine Field in Everett, Washington to record the maiden flight, which is still available to watch on-demand.
 

Things are hotting up here in Copenhagen. After the country representatives spent all last week working on the text dealing with aviation, suddenly yesterday the President of the COP - who chairs the proceedings - announced that she was splitting these workstreams into even smaller groups and making the sessions closed to observers. It is very difficult for us to know what is happening behind these closed doors, so we just continue to speak to delegates in the halls and track the other exciting news of the day - the expected first flight of the Boeing 787.

This aircraft heralds a new era in efficient flight - built from lightweight composite materials and utilising new engine and aerodynamic design, it is 20% more efficient per passenger than the aircraft they replace. After a number of delays, partly due to the brand new technology that has been developed, the 787 test aircraft took its first high-speed run yesterday in Seattle. Today, at 10am Pacific Standard Time (7 pm CET), subject to weather conditions - and it is fairly cold in Seattle at this point - the aircraft will take off for its first flight. We will be watching and bring you any new information, but if you want to watch yourself, Boeing are providing a live feed on their website.

The Danish Government specified that 65% of all food in the congress centre for COP15 be organic. Instead, the caterers thought they said 65% tasteless and 100% de-frosted. The food is really bad here (aside from the carrot cake).

Other than that, the event is actually very well organised. The computer systems are good (wi-fi is available everywhere and is very fast), there are recycling bins all over the place, they have put up three massive temporary buildings to house the delegation offices and the Danish people are all very friendly and go out of their way to be of service.

I am not sure where the fruit and vegetables served in the cafes is from, but if one group presenting here in Copenhagen has their way, it may well be from the Sahara in the future...

One of the challenges to overcome in supplying the aviation industry with sustainable biofuel for our aircraft is finding land on which to grow it. The Bellona Foundation of Norway is backing a scheme called The Sahara Forest Project which is looking to use large parts of the Sahara Desert to grow crops and biofuels using solar energy and desalinated water. It's a good idea. As the above graphic shows, the land can be used for a concentrated solar power plant, a photovoltaic solar power array, greenhouses for growing crops and - importantly for us in aviation - a high-density algae biofuel production facility.

According to the Sahara Forest Project, "Deserts are often used as symbols of infertility and lost hope. Many, if not all of the world's deserts, formerly supported vegetation. Were it not for the lack of fresh water, they could still do so... the world is not short of water. The water is just in the wrong place and is too salty."

It is these types of forward thinking innovations that will allow us to continue living our lives, but in a low-carbon way and provide much needed economic development and jobs in some of the poorest parts of the world.

It's Saturday and the work of the COP15 continues, although most of the meetings today are closed. Security was noticably tighter coming in this morning, as Ministers and the high-level delegations start arriving. Security is also especially strong today due to a mass protest that is expected to take place.

I was reflecting this morning on the different negotiating strengths of states here. Some countries have brought very large delegations, but a large number of small states have just a few delgates (slightly off-point, but while the Australian Prime Minister was having to defend a 117-strong delegation, the USA has 200 delegates, Brazil has 1,000 and the UK around 70 negotiatiors, it is interesting to note that green group Friends of the Earth has over 600 staff here).

There is a large globe in the main atrium area of the congress centre (pictured above) and just above New Zealand on that map should be the Cook Islands - it doesn't appear, along with a large number of other tiny island states (although more due to logistics than a deliberate snub, I expect). One of the Cook Island delegation stood on a chair the other day and wrote "Cook Islands" on the globe. A small action, but quite symbolic I think. The small island states have been very vocal in these negotiations - particularly Tuvalu - and it is only right that the developed world listens to them as they are the nations to be hit first and hardest by climate change. I also think it is important that the larger developing states listen to them too.

I am sure most of you are seeing the news coming from the Copenhagen Climate Talks on TV or in the press. What you see doesn't always capture the reality though. Despite the theatrical walk-outs by delegations, the suspension of negotiations and other drama, things here on the ground are not actually that exciting.

So, what are we doing on a day-to-day basis? Well, the large document that everyone is working towards here - the co-called Copenhagen Accord (although there have been indications today that it may turn into a Copenhagen Protocol) - has been split into a huge number of sections which are the subject of entire negotiations just by themselves. Literally, the text is broken up and negotiated paragraph-by-paragraph by different teams of delegates.

One such team is working on the text that relates to "bunker fuels" - carbon emissions caused by fuel carried across international waters and borders by aircraft and ships. This team has been negotiating about how these emissions may be treated under any new agreement. These negotiating sessions are closed to everyone except the official country delegates, but every now and then through contacts at NGOs or even on country delegations, we are able to get copies of how the new texts on aviation are progressing. There are currently around four or five different versions of the text that is interesting to us.

We also use our time here to provide information to those making the decisions - we have meetings with delegations, try to bump into important people in the corridors and hold side events (basically give presentations about our position and take time to answer questions from both delegates and environmental groups). Paul Steele, our executive director, spoke about aviation biofuels yesterday (you can watch a video here). We held our own side event on our political objectives today (photo above) and Paul is speaking right now at a Romanian Government event on aviation efficiency. It is all about making sure the guys in the negotiating room have all the information they need to make the right decisions.

Work continues tomorrow (Saturday). There's no rest for the negotiations, as all the Ministers start to arrive over the weekend.