Industry consortium launches new company to exploit the potential of jatropha as a jet biofuel
Thu 26 Feb 2009 - A consortium of biofuel and carbon offset interests have formed a new company, JatrophaBioJet Corporation, to tap the potential of jatropha as an alternative jet fuel. It aims to provide a cooperative single point exchange for the worldwide supply and purchase of jatropha jet fuel and a carbon offset opportunity. JatrophaBioJet believes the recent successful in-flight trials using jatropha-derived biofuels provide an opportunity to exploit a requirement for 200 million barrels of jet biofuel by 2017. Read more ...
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American Airlines joins US Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Leaders programme
Thu 26 Feb 2009 - American Airlines is to participate in the Climate Leaders programme of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Climate Leaders is a collaboration of business and the EPA to develop comprehensive climate change strategies in which members commit to reducing their impact on the global environment by setting ambitious greenhouse gas reduction goals to be achieved over the next five to 10 years and reporting their progress to the EPA annually. Read more ...
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New carbon efficient eco retirement home unveiled for Concorde at Manchester Airport
Thu 26 Feb 2009 - One of the few remaining highly environmentally unfriendly Concorde aircraft has been retired to a newly-built eco-home at the UK's Manchester Airport. The 2,574-square-metre Concorde Visitor Centre, which will display the aircraft, includes a corporate hospitality suite, an education centre for local schools and a glass-walled visitor centre. Before its final flight to Manchester in 2003, the noisy, fuel-guzzling but iconic and much-loved former British Airways Concorde G-BOAC was in service for three decades, during which time it achieved the highest recorded ground speed for a commercial airliner of 1,488mph. Read more ...
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Coalition of US aviation industry groups lays out principles for framing debate on aviation and climate change
Wed 25 Feb 2009 - Twenty-one US and international aviation industry groups, representing airlines, airports, general aviation, aerospace manufacturers, pilots and air traffic controllers, have joined together to issue a paper outlining a set of guiding principles to address aviation and climate change. The principles include creating a cost-benefit analysis, a central framework, an international dimension, a comprehensive energy policy and a science-based debate. The paper also calls for a US national energy policy. Read more ...
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UK statistics report a quadrupling of passengers and trebling of aviation emissions since 1980
Tue 24 Feb 2009 - Figures published by the UK Government's Department for Transport (DfT) and compiled by the Office of National Statistics show that the number of passengers flying to, from or between UK airports has more than quadrupled between 1980 and 2007, from 50 million to 216 million per year. Passenger numbers have increased steadily during this period, although domestic flight passenger numbers have fallen over the last two years. The report also includes results from surveys that indicate 36 percent of the UK public believe aeroplanes contribute most from all transport modes to climate change. Read more ...
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Swedish airport operator LFV achieves carbon dioxide emissions reductions of a third over last three years
Mon 23 Feb 2009 - LFV, the operator of 16 Swedish airports including Stockholm-Arlanda and responsible for air navigation services in the country, claims it has reduced carbon dioxide emissions across the group by a third since 2005, from 15,000 tonnes to 9,900 last year. It is LFV's intention to halve emission levels by 2010 compared with 2005. The LFV Group is the first Swedish company to become a carbon neutral enterprise. Stockholm-Arlanda has targeted itself to become a zero-emission airport by 2012. Read more ...
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Companies put cost savings before environmental concerns as recession impacts business travel
Fri 20 Feb 2009 - The annual global survey by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) and corporate travel management solutions company KDS has found that companies now see cost-cutting as the top business travel concern - rated a high priority by 79 percent of respondents - while environmentally sustainable travel was only a high priority for just 17 percent, compared with 29 percent the previous year. Overall, environmental sustainability is rated only a mid-level priority, ranked at this level by 48 percent of organizations. Read more ...
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Boeing achieves ISO 14001 environmental certification for all its major manufacturing facilities
Thu 19 Feb 2009 - As one of its prime environmental performance goals, Boeing has now achieved the internationally recognized ISO 14001 certification across all major manufacturing facilities in the US, Canada and Australia. The standard is for organizations wanting to implement or improve an environmental management system, which includes a set of processes, systems and practices to reduce environmental impact and to operate more effectively. Read more ...
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Manchester Airport achieves carbon standard certification in move towards carbon neutrality
Thu 19 Feb 2009 - Manchester Airport has become the first UK airport to be awarded the Carbon Trust Standard in recognition of the airport's commitment to the environment through carbon emissions reduction and carbon management. The Carbon Trust was set up in 2001 by the UK Government as an independent company to accelerate the move to a low carbon economy by working with organizations to reduce their emissions. The airport has pledged to reach carbon neutral status by 2015. Read more ...
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Airbus confirms that its first biofuel commercial aircraft test flight will not take place until 2010
Tue 17 Feb 2009 - Aircraft manufacturer Airbus has confirmed that JetBlue will be the first Airbus operator to test a biofuel blend on one its A320 planes during the spring of next year. Airbus announced last May that it was partnering with the US low-cost carrier along with engine manufacturer International Aero Engines (IAE) and Honeywell's fuel refining technology subsidiary UOP on the biofuel programme. Airbus believes that 30 percent of jet fuel requirements could be met by biofuels by 2030. Read more ...
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European Commission publishes list of aircraft operators and their administering states for ETS
Mon 16 Feb 2009 - The European Commission has published a preliminary list of over 2,700 aircraft operators from around the world who may be eligible to join the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) from 2012. The list also includes each operator's administering Member State, which shows that over 750 operators, more than a quarter of the total, will be allocated to the United Kingdom. Most of the large US, Middle East and Asian airlines are included in the UK list. Latvia, by contrast, will oversee just five carriers. Read more ...
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Morphing winglets under development promise fuel savings and reduced aircraft noise on landing
Mon 16 Feb 2009 - Boeing and Airbus are developing moveable winglets - the fins at the end of a wing - in a bid to build greener, quieter planes, reports New Scientist magazine. Perfected at NASA in the 1970s, conventional, fixed winglets are small, upward extensions to a plane's wing which minimize the drag experienced by the wing, making it easier for the plane to cut through the air, which in turn boosts its fuel efficiency. Winglets fixed at an angle of around 25 degrees from the vertical can cut an aircraft's fuel consumption by 3 to 5 percent. Read more ...
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There is a critical need for more global coordination on alternative aviation fuels, claims ICAO
Fri 13 Feb 2009 - The Secretary General of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Dr Taieb Cherif, told delegates at this week's ICAO Workshop on Aviation and Alternative Fuels that the international aviation community had not yet achieved an integrated approach to alternative fuels and there was a critical need for more global coordination. He suggested ICAO was the recognized forum for that to happen as it was committed to exercising its leadership among all aviation stakeholders, be they States, industry or specialized agencies. Read more ...
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North American airports agree to implement ambitious environmental goals over the next decade
Fri 13 Feb 2009 - Airports Council International - North America (ACI-NA), which represents most commercial airports in the US and Canada, has adopted a series of environmental goals covering all aspects of airport operations and management. It calls on every member airport to have an environmental policy by next year and for large airports to have in place an Environmental Management System by 2014. Other targets cover ground emissions, energy, noise, waste management and water quality. Read more ...
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Major airlines say a global approach to aviation emissions must be included in a post-Kyoto climate deal
Thu 12 Feb 2009 - Four leading international airlines – Air France/KLM, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Virgin Atlantic – plus UK airport operator BAA, have called for CO2 emissions from international aviation to be included in a new global climate deal to be negotiated at the UNFCCC summit in Copenhagen in December. They have formed an industry coalition called the Aviation Global Deal (AGD) Group that aims to work alongside IATA and ICAO, as well as industry stakeholders, governments and NGOs, to develop an appropriate policy solution at a sectoral level. Read more ...
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UK Government’s climate adviser tells parliamentary committee that personal flights may have to be rationed
Tue 10 Feb 2009 – To lower pollution from the aviation industry, people should be given personal flight limits, Lord Turner (right), Chairman of the UK’s Committee on Climate Change. The committee was instrumental in persuading the UK Government to adopt tougher national targets on reducing carbon emissions and to include aviation in those targets. Meanwhile, leading US climate scientist Dr James Hansen has told The Observer that coal not aviation was the number one priority in the battle against climate change, although he has since retracted some of his comments to the UK newspaper. Read more ...
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Airlines prepare to enter Europe's Emissions Trading Scheme as aviation directive comes into force
Tue 10 Feb 2009 - The directive incorporating aviation into the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) entered into force last week, obliging EU Member States to pass appropriate legislation and make administrative provisions before 2 February 2010. Aircraft operators flying within or to and from Europe are required to enter into the first phase of the scheme's Monitoring, Reporting and Verification process. During 2009, operators who fall within the scope of the ETS will have to submit monitoring plans. Meanwhile, Europe's statistical agency reports that air passenger transport in the EU27 states rose 7.3 percent in 2007. Read more ...
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UK domestic and international aviation CO2 emissions declined in 2007 from previous year, reports DECC
Fri 6 Feb 2009 - According to the final estimates of total UK greenhouse gas emissions for 2007, CO2 emissions from international aviation fuel use decreased by 1.9 percent over 2006 and domestic aviation emissions fell by 6.6 percent over the same period. This is the first time emissions from UK aviation have fallen since the post-9/11 period. The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) points out, however, that international aviation emissions have more than doubled since 1990 compared with a fall of 18 percent in overall UK GHG emissions. Read more ...
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UK Government finally unveils its controversial quality assurance scheme for carbon offset providers
Fri 6 Feb 2009 - The UK's Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has invited carbon offset providers to apply to join its Quality Assurance Scheme for Carbon Offsetting, an initiative aimed at increasing consumers' understanding of carbon offset schemes such as those offered by airlines and helping them to make informed purchases of good-quality offsets. Those providers who have been approved can then use a quality mark to demonstrate to the public and businesses that their offset schemes and the projects supported comply with the quality criteria set out by the Government. Read more ...
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US researchers develop new traffic optimization procedure that could cut annual aviation emissions by 6 percent
Thu 5 Feb 2009 - Researchers in the US have developed a traffic optimization procedure that could potentially reduce national commercial aviation fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by up to 6 percent, based on a saving of more than one billion gallons a year. Known as En Route Traffic Optimization, the procedure involves new algorithms that allow air traffic controllers to determine how to assign aircraft to the most direct and efficient routes possible while maintaining comfortable safety margins between aircraft. Read more ...
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New US administration provides timely and valuable funding for next-generation biofuel research and development
Wed 4 Feb 2009 - The Air Transport Association of America (ATA) has welcomed an announcement by the new US administration that the Departments of Energy (DOE) and Agriculture (USDA) are to release up to $25 million in funding for the research and development of biofuels. The funding is aimed at increasing the availability of alternative renewable fuels and bio-based products, and the US airline industry is hopeful that the development and commercialization of aviation jet biofuels will benefit from the initiative. Read more ...
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