Page 26 - European Energy Innovation - Summer 2014

Summer 2014 European Energy Innovation
AVIATION
Setting the targets for
sustainable growth in aviation
By Haldane Dodd, Air Transport Action Group, Geneva
In the aviation sector, fuel
efficiency and cost reductions
run hand-in-hand. As Haldane
Dodd of the Air Transport
Action Group explains, the
incentive for the industry to run
more efficiently is more than
just a sense of environmental
obligation.
Fuel makes up over a third of
airline operating costs – the
world’s carriers spent over $211
billion on jet fuel last year and
the long term trend on the fuel
price is upwards. There is a
definite fiscal incentive for airlines from their own operations
to reduce the largest of their
expenses.
Aircraft designers, too, have
long strived for fuel efficient
new models of plane and the
major sales pitch between
manufacturers is the efficiency of
each new design. In fact, aircraft
entering today’s fleet are well
over 70% more fuel-efficient
than they were in the 1960s and
most of the industry’s current
research and development
(R&D) initiatives are dedicated to
ensuring this trend will continue
for generations to come.
The investment is significant. It is
estimated that the civil aerospace
industries in Europe and North
America alone spend over
$20 billion each year on R&D,
most of which will bring about
emissions reductions. Over the
next few years, a new range of
lean-burning engines will enter
the market along with lighter but
stronger airframe materials and
electrically-driven aircraft systems
which will replace today’s heavy
mechanical and hydraulic power
units — lowering fuel costs further.
There is an important spin-off to
this economy drive — each tonne
of fuel saved also means 3.15
tonnes fewer carbon dioxide
(CO2) emissions.
While airports and air navigation
service providers have been
working on reducing emissions
(see, for example, the excellent
Airport Carbon Accreditation
programme), there is no direct
financial incentive for an airport or The industry is using a four-pillar
air navigation service provider to
help an airline reduce fuel costs
– despite emissions from aircraft
operations making up over 95%
of the industry’s impact. However,
in the last five years, we have seen
a phenomenal increase in efforts
by all parts of the aviation sector
to work with each other to reduce
emissions… and it all started at
the top.
SETTING TARGETS
Our track record on fuel and
emissions reduction is one
of which we can be proud.
Technology and operational
measures deployed since 1990
alone have allowed the industry
to avoid over five billion tonnes
of CO2. But with the growth
in passengers and traffic, the
industry realised a more strategic
focus was needed to reduce
emissions further.
At the 2008 Aviation &
Environment Summit in Geneva,
industry leaders took the
unprecedented step to sign an
agreement on our path forward
for reducing emissions by
working in partnership across
the industry. This declaration
was followed by a set of
comprehensive targets, the first
for any sector:
(1) From 2009 until 2020: average
1.5% efficiency improvement per
year
strategy (see below) to further
increase its fuel efficiency by a
further 17% over the first decade.
One of the most important parts
of that strategy is the introduction
of new technology – the biggest
impact of which comes through
replacement of older aircraft
in the fleet with newer, more
efficient ones. This is not cheap.
To keep to the 1.5% fleet
efficiency improvement target, the
world’s airlines will need to invest
in around 12,000 new aircraft by
2020 at an estimated cost of $1.3
trillion.
(2) From 2020: Capping emissions
growth from aviation
The aviation sector has agreed to
cap its net emissions at the 2020
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