Japanese airline ANA, has been setting the standards high this month for finding original and effective ideas that cut carbon emissions. The latest addition to ANA’s innovative schemes is their unique carbon offset programme, which allows passengers to offset the impact of their flight directly through their mobile phone. Codes are printed on posters and pamphlets in airports where ANA operates for passengers to scan using their phones. They then receive information on the amount of CO2 emitted during their flight and the cost of offsetting these emissions, with an option to make a donation directly through their phone to cover these costs. Given its simplicity, this carbon offsetting scheme is expected to be a big success – predictions are that 400,000 passengers will take part in this scheme annually, resulting in a cut of 31,600 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year.

This week also saw Rolls-Royce officially introduce their newest engine from the AE 3007 series – the AE 3007A2, for use in the Embraer large executive jet, the Legacy 650. The new engine boasts superior performance than its predecessor and greater fuel efficiency, particularly over long ranges. It is expected to enter into service next year!

It’s all happening in the Far East this week, where some significant alliances have been achieved with regards to the aviation sector.

China, for example, is expected to become Boeing’s research and development partner for environmentally friendly technologies designed to improve the environmental performance of aircraft. A key part of their partnership will be to develop biofuels, with a near term plan expected to involve the commercialisation of jatropha. China itself has impressive resources of jatropha and other biofuel feedstocks– by 2020 it is expecting to have developed 13 million hectares of biofuel plantations; that’s enough to yield 6 million tonnes of biodiesel annually.

Travelling a little further East and Japan has just recently become the latest member of ASPIRE – an initiative focused on improving the efficiency of aircraft operations with the ultimate aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Being a big player in the aviation industry, Japan’s move to join ASPIRE represents a big step up in collective efforts to limit the industry’s environmental impact. To mark this event, Japan Airlines completed the latest ASPIRE flight demonstration – a flight from Honolulu to Osaka which included the most efficient, advanced technologies and procedures; including just-in-time fueling, preferred routes over the ocean, optimising speed and altitude and using a tailored-arrival approach to the destination airport.

Gulf Air is also making moves to maximize efficiency as it officially begins its fleet renewal programme for Airbus with the arrival of the first 10 A320’s, which will replace the older narrow-body aircrafts. Airbus’ innovations and performance advances have made the aircraft more operationally efficient, reducing costs and fuel burn which allows for better environmental performance. And the A320’s also have a special feature… they use a chromate-free paint which requires 15% less paint when applied to the aircraft, resulting in lighter aircraft, less fuel burn and so ultimately less aircraft CO2 emissions – clever thinking!

‘Research and Markets’ have provided us with some uplifting news this week, announcing the release of their new ‘Airports go green’ report. As we’ve noted in recent weeks, airports have made significant contributions in fighting climate change by adopting numerous strategies to limit their emissions. ‘Airports go green’ is dishing out some well-deserved praise to those airports that have acted to reduce their environmental impact, offering case studies and explaining the initiatives that have been taken. It is just this type of encouragement which will create the incentive for others to follow!

New cross-industry agreements are resulting in further improvements in the environmental performance of aircrafts. For example, the long-term supply agreement established this week between Honeywell and China Southern Airlines, which will see new Auxiliary Power Units installed in their Airbus A320’s and Boeing Next-Generation 737’s. This move is set to reduce fuel consumption by 5% per aircraft.
 
Looking forward, Airbus is expected to make an announcement in the coming weeks on the new winglet programme for the Airbus A320 family… once it has decided which winglet design it will use! Airbus has already said it will go ahead with the programme which will reduce fuel burn by 2% - 4% depending on the design chosen. So now all that’s left is to make the final decision: an Aviation Partners blended winglet design, or an Airbus-own design interestingly called "sharklets"?

In the news this week airports have shown positive improvements as they make their own contributions to lowering carbon emissions.

Sky Harbor International Airport, Pheonix, has announced plans to lower their carbon footprint by converting airport-based vehicles to alternate fuels and building a $1.1 billion automated train that aims to take thousands of cars off the streets near Sky Harbor. Measures are also being taken by airlines operating at Sky Harbor to cut emissions on the ground by replacing diesel-powered ground-support vehicles with electric versions.

San Francisco International Airport has also been working hard, becoming the first in the nation to allow passengers to off-set their carbon emissions from flights. Climate Passport kiosks located in the airport determine how many pounds of CO2 a trip will produce and calculate accordingly how much an environmentally-friendly traveler should contribute in order to off-set their travel. Passengers are then able to purchase these certified carbon offsets.

In other news, the European Voice published an interesting piece on the aviation industry’s development of new fuels and innovative technology. The article talks of the vast improvement we have witnessed in biofuel development, as it has gone from being simply an “interesting concept” to being tested in flights in just 18 months. Also mentioned, is the new ‘silent’ aircraft, the Sax-40, an aircraft designed with wings that blend seamlessly into the body of the plane, reducing noise and carbon emissions.

The aviation industry, it seems, is well on the way to achieving its very ambitious targets!

Today's guest blogger is The Rt Hon Brian Wilson, former British Member of Parliament and current chair of Flying Matters, a UK coalition of aviation companies.

The UK Environment Secretary, Ed Miliband, recently declared that lower-income people should not be priced out of flying on environmental grounds. The UK Treasury appears to have no such qualms about airborne elitism since the impact of draconian increases in Air Passenger Duty, dressed up in spurious green clothes, will be exactly the one that Mr Miliband has rejected.

The vast majority of us take it for granted that we will, occasionally, be able to afford to visit friends and family in far flung places or to go on holiday abroad. It is a remarkable change from just 30 years ago when flying was still the preserve of an elite. It would be unjust and futile to implement policies designed to revert to that position.

The Government’s own figures confirm that the current rises in APD are expected to price over a million and a half people out of flying each year – with the prospect of much more to come.

The fundamental unfairness of these flight tax rises is evidenced by a recent study by the UK National Centre for Social Research which showed that people on low and middle incomes were most likely to stop flying altogether when prices were forced up, whilst those on higher incomes simply change to cheaper destinations.

The figures are eye watering. The tax will rise in stages so that by November next year a family of four flying to Jamaica will pay £300 in tax alone, compared with £160 now. The same family will pay £340 in tax to go to Sydney, more than double the current rate.

Research carried out by Populus showed that nearly half the population have loved ones living abroad and that many people combine holidays with visiting friends and family. The research also showed that cost of travel is the main factor in how often they can visit their loved ones abroad.

And what of those parts of the world which rely heavily on UK tourism to support their economies?  Kenya, Sri Lanka, the Caribbean, to name a few. There is real fear that the cost of flying to these countries will put off so many visitors that their economies will be badly hit.

If the blatant unfairness were not enough, the tax is completely ineffective in environmental terms.  APD is not hypothecated for environmental purposes. It doesn’t go towards research to reduce emissions either in aviation or other industries, whereas the aviation industry already spends more than £2.5billion a year on R&D to reduce its climate impact.

The UK is out of step on this issue given progress on ETS at EU level and the focus at the Copenhagen Summit in December on securing the inclusion of aviation in a global scheme to address its climate impact. Unilateral action by the UK government will cause economic pain for no environmental gain.

There is no economic or environmental justification for this socially regressive measure. As the UK public realise that the doors to the world are beginning to close for a large number of them, they may well express their disapproval at the ballot box. This time, The Environment Secretary is right and the Treasury is wrong.

The aviation industry continues to demonstrate real results in limiting its climate change impact. The Air Transport Association of America (ATA), the industry trade organisation for the US airlines, presented this week its 2009 Economic Report. The report confirms it will reach, if not exceed, targets to improve fuel efficiency a further 30% between 2005 and 2025 – equivalent to the amount of CO2 saved by taking 13 million cars off the road each year in the same period.

On the subject of future improvements, Rentech, a clean energy solutions company, announced an agreement to supply 8 US domestic airlines with the new renewable synthetic fuel, RenDiesel, as of 2012. This biodegradable fuel is produced from green waste and is virtually free of particulates, sulfur and aromatics, giving it a near zero carbon footprint. What’s more, RenDiesel is compatible with existing engines and pipelines giving the aviation industry an immediate solution to reaching targets set by California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard.

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.

One of the suppliers of sustainable biofuels in the Japan Airlines test flight earlier this year, Sustainable Oils, has completed an analysis of the carbon lifecycle emissions from using jet fuel derived from its chosen plant, camelina. They have found that the use of camelina-derived biojet would reduce emissions by 84% compared to traditional fossil fuel Jet A-1.

This doesn't mean that the carbon emissions coming out of the back of an aircraft engine are less - they will be around the same whether the fuel comes from biomass or fossil fuel. The difference comes when you consider that the biofuel feedstock requires carbon dioxide to grow - thus absorbing some of the CO2 that is emitted by the use of the fuel in flight. Fossil fuels used by cars, trucks, trains and planes are releasing carbon dioxide that has not been in the atmosphere for millions of years.

Put simply: if you look at a total lifecycle of the fuel, when a jet burns one tonne of today's fuel, it releases an additional 3.15 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that were not there already - they had been trapped underground. In the next few years, when a jet burns one tonne of fuel made from camelina, only around half a tonne of extra carbon dioxide will be released - an 84% reduction. The rest of the carbon dioxide released will have been absorbed as the camelina plant was grown.

The reason why the emissions are not 100% reduced is that there is inefficiency in the supply chain - carbon released during processing, transport, refining and growing the biofuel. This could also become more efficient over time as well.

This measurement signifiantly changes the way we will have to look at the total emissions of the industry and it puts carbon neutral growth firmly within our reach. And there are early indications that a lifecycle analysis of the other feedstocks such as algae and jatropha will have similar lifecycle emissions footprints.

(Photo by JustinHession/Getty)

"From a communications perspective, making a special announcement on April 1st is a challenge," Philippe Rochat, the former Executive Director of the Air Transport Action Group, noted this morning at the Aviation & Environment Summit in Geneva. But undeterred, major groups in the aviation industry signed a Declaration calling for the rapid implementation of Performance-based Navigation (PBN), an air navigation concept that leads to safety, efficiency and environmental improvements for aircraft, particularly on their approach to an airport.

PBN has already been put in place in a number of airports, where the benefits have become very clear. For example, Qantas and Airservices Australia have developed PBN arrival procedures for Australian airports. In the first year, Qantas flew 1612 PBN approaches to Brisbane in low visibility conditions, which reduced normal distance flown by 17,300 nautical miles and reduced CO2 emissions by 650,000 kg. Overall, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimates that shorter PBN routes could cut CO2 emissions by 13 million tonnes per year if globally implemented.

The Declaration, backed by organisations such as ICAO, IATA, CANSO, IFATCA and ACI calls upon all leaders of the civil aviation community to actively implement PBN in accordance with ICAO provisions. Implementing PBN requires a true total industry approach, hence the wide industry support. It also reaffirms how important global cooperation is to the success of projects such as this. It's a theme we've seen time and again at this Summit and it was great to see a real example of it this morning.

As CANSO Secretary General Alexander ter Kuile said, "From the perspective of air navigation services, it does not get any better than this."

Click here to view the Declaration and the signatories.

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 key priority for British Airways (BA) and other airlines, with the economy and environment presenting a win - win situation. Investment in fuel efficient measures (including new airplanes, route shortening, reducing the weight of aircraft, to name but a few) reduces the amount of fuel consumed, decreasing both cost and carbon dioxide emissions. Walsh added that BA aims to cut CO2 emissions by 50% by 2050 and is absolutely committed to IATA's four-pillar strategy on climate change.

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 growth. As Paul Steele, Executive Director of the Air Transport Action Group (ATAG), put it 'declarations are only words and declarations must be translated into actions.' From airlines to manufacturers, airports to international associations, the aviation industry remains committed to carbon neutral growth. And with the exciting new developments in biofuels, in the words of Billy Glover Managing Director, Environmental Strategy for Boeing,'the future's so bright, you've got to wear shades...'

As a Brit living in Geneva I always enjoy my trips to London. This week I popped into the Science Museum to see its exhibition on aviation and the environment called 'Does Flying Cost the Earth?'

I hadn't been to the Science Museum since I was an eight year-old living in London and I had forgotten how impressive it is. I became completely absorbed in the 3rd floor exhibition on flight, which includes Amy Johnson's airplane Gipsy Moth. 

Anyway, I found my way to the far end of the ground floor where the exhibition sits. It looks at how aviation impacts on climate change and what can be done to reduce aviation's 2% share of global carbon emissions. The Science Museum exhibition also has a complementary website that makes the same information about aviation and the environment available online. 

The exhibition looks at how we can save fuel and reduce emissions right now, but what I enjoyed was its take on some of the technologies that could be available in 20 to 30 years time.

Many of the technologies highlighted focus on saving weight. Less weight = less fuel used = fewer emissions. Engine makers are developing lighter but stronger turbine blades, and plane makers are combining carbon fibre with traditional materials like plastic to make lighter planes.

There are also some visionary ideas to make planes more aero dynamic. One such is the blended wing aircraft. The aircraft becomes one big flying wing, improving airflow to save fuel, which would significantly reduce emissions. But there would be fewer windows.

And the exhibition looks at alternative fuels to traditional jet fuel. Various possibilities are discussed including liquid hydrogen and making fuel from algae.

I thought the exhibition was very balanced. It doesn't try to hide the fact that planes contribute to climate change, and explains exactly what causes aviation's climate change impact. The exhibition has some excellent animations that bring the complexities of climate change to life. It takes a realistic view of whether the new technologies will be feasible or not and highlights the problems as well as the benefits.

There is also a great interactive game where you upgrade your fleet with the latest technologies and it shows if you are reducing emissions in the light of increasing passenger numbers.

I disagreed with some things. I thought the exhibition undersells many of the amazing technological advances being developed. For instance, it downplays the potential of algae as a replacement for kerosene. I think algae offers very real possibilities for a carbon-neutral industry and would not compete for land with food crops. It also doesn't deal with the technological advances in navigation and operations that enable planes to fly more efficiently and use less fuel.

But all in all a great exhibition and anyone who flies and is concerned about the environment should go and see it.

The exhibition runs until 2nd November so if you are passing through London and are interested in aviation and climate change go take a look.

Comment on this post >>