Flying Green

Ten global airlines have joined forces with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to raise funding for research and development work on technology for cutting air transport carbon emissions. The charitable non-profit Aviation Climate Taskforce (ACT), which intends to tap public, private, and philanthropic sources of capital, has been launched by the following carriers in partnership with BCG: Air Canada, Air France-KLM, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways, Lufthansa, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic Airways.

The airline industry will be a prominent target at COP26 and beyond. The aviation industry overall generates a relatively small 2.5% to 3.5% of the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions, but it is a conspicuous target and is often (wrongly) viewed as the playground of the rich.

In 2009, when the airline industry committed to cutting its carbon emissions in half by 2050, it was seen as a global front-runner. It was the first industry to commit to an ambitious target before others even acknowledged that there was a climate change problem. Since then, however, the goals set by air transport have been overtaken by reality and become a problem themselves. In short, the situation indicates that the airlines were not prepared to do enough to fight for environmental sustainability.

Charter operator Tradewind Aviation has launched a new carbon offset program that will automatically cover all of its flights throughout North America and the Caribbean. The move expands on the company’s initial offset initiative in 2020 that allowed customers to voluntarily offset carbon emissions from their flights. That contribution was calculated at $7 per flight hour. As of the end of 2021, participants in the program had offset 160.3 tonnes of CO2.

Sustainable technology group Johnson Matthey this week launched a new method for producing sustainable aviation fuel that it says will support more cost-efficient rates of production. Its Hycogen process, which is intended to be used in combination with FT CANS Fischer Tropsch technology, was developed jointly with BP to convert captured carbon dioxide and green hydrogen into aircraft fuel.

Initial findings from a study of the impact of 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) on both engines of a commercial jet have provided promising early results, Neste has reported.

Clay Lacy is seeing a slow but growing demand from operators for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), Scott Cutshall, the California-based company’s senior v-p of development and sustainability, told attendees Wednesday at AIN’s Building a Sustainable Flight Department forum. Cutshall, who provided an overview on developing a sustainable organization, noted Clay Lacy began carrying the fuel in April at its Southern California FBOs and has since sold less than 10,000 gallons.

Gulfstream Aerospace has signed the World Economic Forum’s Clean Skies for Tomorrow 2030 Ambition Statement, building on the company’s commitment to sustainability. The move makes it the first business aircraft manufacturer to sign the statement, which seeks to increase use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which offers lower life cycle carbon emissions, and boost SAF supply to meet 10 percent of global jet fuel needs by 2030.

While the hope in the coming decades is to move away from carbon offsets in favor of use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), electric, hydrogen, or other options, 4Air president Kennedy Ricci called these credits an important tool in the effort to move toward business aviation's carbon-neutrality goal.

Those with inbound flights to the 2021 NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE) will be able to make a purchase toward the production of low-carbon sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), even if SAF is not available from their departing airport.

Once the IATA resolution for the global air transport industry to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 was approved at the organization’s annual general meeting (AGM), it was almost immediately met with the realization of the huge challenges ahead that many delegates agreed would require a step-by-step approach.

Whether you operate one aircraft or a large fleet, integrating a carbon offset program into your flight department’s operations can be a labor-intensive and confusing task. The team at 4AIR has the insights you need to make your operation’s participation as simple as a daytime VFR landing.

Aviation and transport were right at the top of the agenda at the recent United Nations COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow and it provided a boost for aviation decarbonisation and the sector’s net zero emissions. The drive towards increased availability and use of sustainable aviation fuels was crystal clear at COP26, as was a critical need for government, industry, and wider stakeholder collaboration to incentivise its use.

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