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Copenhagen's failure to deliver an aviation emissions deal leaves sector facing an uncertain future
Tue 22 Dec 2009 - Following earlier hopes that an agreement on international aviation emissions might be reached during the first week of the Copenhagen climate change summit, negotiations unravelled during the final chaotic days as procedural wrangles put paid to any progress. Despite the largely disappointing outcome, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and industry bodies representing airlines and airports were publicly upbeat as no deal was better than a bad one from their point of view. ICAO talked of "forging ahead" with its own "aggressive" plan of action on combating climate change and IATA called the eventual agreement, the Copenhagen Accord, "an important step in the right direction". NGOs, on the other hand, said the outcome was missed opportunity and a great loss for the sector. Read more ...
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Qantas launches new domestic onboard recycling programme in effort to reduce landfill waste by a quarter
Mon 21 Dec 2009 - Qantas has launched a new domestic onboard recycling programme in partnership with Closed Loop Recycling, which provides recycling solutions and environmentally sustainable packaging. To support its activities, Qantas has developed a reference page on its website for customers interested in seeking information on the recycling programme and all other environmental initiatives. Meanwhile, Green Flight, an Australian provider of environmental solutions for airlines, has combined with US-based Aero Jet Wash to launch GreenWash, a new environmentally safe jet engine washing service. Read more ...
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Malmö Aviation achieves ISO 14001 certification as part of long-term commitment to environmental performance
Mon 21 Dec 2009 - Malmo Aviation, Sweden's second-largest airline, has achieved the ISO 14001 international standard on environmental management, which the carrier says will further reinforce continued environmental efforts to reduce carbon and noise emissions as well as waste. The standard is used within all categories of business and industry to assure systematic and controlled environmental improvements. Environmental auditors reported the airline had effectively managed to inspire commitment throughout the organization to the environmental objectives it had set and thus raise the company's environmental awareness. Read more ...
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SITA offers six months free data storage as airlines gear up for reporting at the start of EU ETS baseline year
Mon 21 Dec 2009 - Aviation IT specialist SITA is offering airlines six months free collection and storage of data required in compliance with the Aviation EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). This option within SITA's Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) software, Aircraft Emissions Manager, will be placed at the disposal of airlines for this limited period as they prepare to begin recording of data for every flight from, to and within the European Union from 1 January 2010 - just over a week's time. This important coming year is the baseline that will determine the level of allowances each operator will have until 2020. Meanwhile, Liberator has signed a five-year global reseller agreement with SITA regarding the Irish-based company's fuel savings solution. Read more ...
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Three major US airlines and ATA file suit in London against UK Government over inclusion in EU ETS
Fri 18 Dec 2009 - With imperfect timing as nations attempt to reach a global solution on international aviation emissions in Copenhagen, three US airlines, American, Continental and United, together with the Air Transport Association of America (ATA), have mounted a legal challenge against the UK Government concerning the Aviation EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). The US airline sector has consistently objected to the inclusion of their flights to and from Europe into the EU ETS arguing that this was in contravention of the Chicago Convention, the international treaty covering aviation. Earlier this week, IATA chief Giovanni Bisignani warned the EU ETS would not start on time in 2012 as international challenges would be made against it. Read more ...
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Hopenhagen turning to Nopenhagen as international aviation and shipping emissions fall victim to process
Thu 17 Dec 2009 - On the eve of the final day of the climate change summit in Copenhagen, it is looking increasingly unlikely a deal on bunker (international aviation and shipping) fuel emissions can be reached. According to a source, draft texts are due to be tabled at the relevant Contact Group later today but the drawn-out procedural process that has dogged the overall negotiations is hampering progress. A feasible way forward to reduce bunker emissions has yet to identified, said a group of NGOs today, who called for the EU to "fight back" on a deal. However, IATA's Paul Steele, who is heading up the aviation industry delegation in Copenhagen, believed the EU's firm targets on reductions in bunker emissions had been a stumbling block with many developing nations. Read more ...
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Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner finally takes to the skies, promising substantial reductions in emissions and noise
Wed 16 Dec 2009 - Boeing's first new airplane for over decade, the 787 Dreamliner, finally took to the skies yesterday from its home base in Everett, Washington. Powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines on its maiden test flight, the flight test programme will continue over the coming months by five other 787s, including two that will be powered by General Electric GEnx engines. The plane manufacturer claims the all-new aircraft will use 20 percent less fuel than other current airplanes of comparable size and the 85 dbA noise footprint is 60 percent smaller. First deliveries are expected in the fourth quarter of 2010 to launch customer All Nippon Airways. The flight coincides with a prediction by IATA that airlines will continue to fare badly in 2010. Read more ...
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Major airlines sign groundbreaking agreement with two producers on the purchase of alternative jet fuel
Tue 15 Dec 2009 - A group of 15 major airlines, led by the Air Transport Association of America (ATA), has signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with AltAir Fuels and Rentech for future supplies of alternative aviation jet fuel. Under the agreement with Seattle-based AltAir Fuels, 14 airlines from the United States, Mexico, Canada and Germany will negotiate a future purchase of up to 750 million gallons of camelina-derived renewable jet fuel and diesel. The fuel is to be produced at a new facility in Anacortes, Washington State, from camelina sourced from Sustainable Oils and refined using technology from Honeywell's UOP. Operations are slated to begin in 2012, with the potential for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport becoming the world's first major airport to supply its airline customers with drop-in renewable jet fuel. Read more ...
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UK opens consultation on second stage of transposing Aviation EU ETS directive into national regulations
Mon 14 Dec 2009 - The UK's Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has opened a 12-week public consultation seeking views on the second set of draft UK regulations to transpose the EU directive on the inclusion of aviation into the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). The first set came into force on 17 September 2009 in order to transpose the key parts of the Aviation Directive that enabled the UK Government with the necessary legal powers to determine aircraft operators' emissions plans and applications for a free allocation before the first reporting year starting 1 January 2010. These new regulations will ultimately repeal in part and replace the first stage regulations and provide for a full transposition of the Directive. Read more ...
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Glimmers of hope emerge from Copenhagen on progress towards a climate deal on international aviation
Mon 14 Dec 2009 - As the first week drew to a close of the UNFCCC COP 15 climate change conference in Copenhagen, negotiators dealing with bunker fuel emissions (international aviation and shipping emissions) are inching slowly and painfully towards an agreed text to take forward to the next stage of the process. In a briefing, it was suggested that a deal can be done in Copenhagen that would give a clear signal and direction to both ICAO and the IMO, the UN maritime agency, on the emissions reductions required by the sectors and a timeline by which to develop a framework. However, other COP-watchers are not so optimistic, citing continued problems with the major developing nations over the CBDR principle and the lower ambitions of some developed countries. Read more ...
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Industry backs ICAO leadership in call for COP 15 to deliver a global agreement on international aviation emissions
Thu 10 Dec 2009 - As the Copenhagen climate change summit nears the end of its first week, airline and airport representatives have called on delegates and governments to back the aviation industry's environmental goals and its global sectoral approach to reducing aviation emissions. At an official side meeting held by the International Civil Aviation Organization on Tuesday, ICAO President Roberto Kobeh Gonzalez said that consensus building and cooperation among the 190 Member States of the agency and the sustained efforts of the air transport industry had resulted in "remarkable progress" in reducing the impact of engine emissions over the past 40 years. Speaking at the same event, IATA Director General Giovanni Bisignani said the industry was ahead of its own regulators in its approach to climate change. Read more ...
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Winners and losers as airline industry is forced to spend 23-35 billion euros on EU ETS allowances, finds report
Thu 10 Dec 2009 – A new report by the Carbon Trust underlines the uncertainty faced by airlines over the impact of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) on their profits. With the likelihood that the industry will be required to purchase 23-35 billion euros ($34-$52bn) of additional allowances over the period 2012-2020, there will be winners and losers. The report finds those airlines that improve fuel efficiency have the potential to benefit significantly from the EU ETS, and could increase profitability by 20-40 percent compared to average airlines, assuming carbon costs between 25-50 euros/tCO2 ($37-74/tCO2), whereas the least fuel efficient airlines could see profits drop by as much as 40 percent. Read more ...
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UK climate change watchdog warns of tough options ahead on aviation growth if national carbon targets are to be met
Wed 9 Dec 2009 - The Committee on Climate Change (CCC), which advises the UK Government on carbon targets, says that future aviation policy must be based on restricting a 'business as usual' growth in air passenger numbers if national reduction targets in CO2 emissions to 2050 are to be met. Instead of a forecasted growth of 200 percent, the figure must be kept to below 60 percent if the UK is to meet the Government's target that aviation emissions in 2050 must not exceed 2005 levels. The CCC report finds that the aviation industry's technological and operational fuel efficiency gains are unlikely to average more than 0.8 percent a year until 2050, a less optimistic viewpoint than that forecasted by the industry itself, and foresees a only a 10 percent take-up of sustainable aviation biofuels in 2050. Read more ...
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With environmental provisos, the UK parliamentary cross-party Transport Committee backs Heathrow expansion
Mon 7 Dec 2009 – The UK's parliamentary Transport Committee of cross-party MPs has endorsed the UK Government's support for a third runway at London's Heathrow Airport, subject to the application of tough environmental conditions. In its wide-ranging report, The Future of Aviation, the Committee called on the Government to ensure that the UK's major airports, particularly Heathrow, are connected to a future high-speed rail system. It also stressed the need to curb pollution from aviation with stronger environmental standards to reduce CO2, air pollution and noise from aircraft, and called for decisive efforts to remove older and noisier planes. The Committee expressed doubts as to whether the inclusion of aviation into the EU Emissions Trading Scheme would have the required effect of driving investment in low-carbon aviation. Read more ...
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Climate financing key to achieving an agreement in Copenhagen on international aviation emissions reductions
Sun 6 Dec 2009 - With two weeks of talks and negotiations starting tomorrow at the UN Climate Change summit in Copenhagen, lobbyists from both the aviation industry and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will separately be pressing developing countries of the need to reduce international aviation emissions through a global sectoral approach. For the first time since the Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1997, Copenhagen presents a real opportunity for the sector's emissions to be finally included in a global agreement. In order to reach a deal on the wider stage, the developed nations will be required to dig deep into their pockets to help the developing nations mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change caused by man-made greenhouse gas emissions and they will look to industries such as aviation to help finance the promised funding. Read more ...
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Algae jet fuel supplier Solazyme ranked the 'hottest' in annual poll of the world's top bioenergy companies
Fri 4 Dec 2009 - San Francisco-based Solazyme has come top in a poll of the biofuel industry's 'hottest' companies for 2009/10, as voted by a panel of invited international selectors and the subscribers of Biofuels Digest, the sector's leading publication. Solazyme was recently awarded a contract by the US Department of Defense to supply the air force of the US Navy with 1,500 gallons (5,700 litres) of algae-derived jet fuel for testing and certification. Other jet biofuel companies who performed well in the poll include Amyris Biotechnologies (3rd), Sapphire Energy (5th) and Honeywell's UOP (12th). Read more ...
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EasyJet CEO calls for tough legislation on aircraft emission standards and the grounding of 'old smokers'
Tue 1 Dec 2009 - EasyJet Chief Executive Andy Harrison has called for tough mandatory emission standards that would lead to a 40 percent reduction in CO2 emissions from the next generation of aircraft. He said that the current Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 narrowbody families were now already over 20 years old and the introduction of the standards should start with short-haul aircraft. EasyJet proposes that by 2015 every new aircraft would have to meet a minimum standard of fuel efficiency, by 2024 airlines could not add to its fleet any aircraft that did not meet the standard and that by 2030 airlines could not operate any aircraft that did not meet the standard. Read more ...
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China Airlines reaches an environmental milestone by quantifying and reporting its greenhouse gas emissions
Tue 1 Dec 2009 - Taiwan's China Airlines has had its greenhouse gas emissions inventory verified and certified to the ISO 14064-1:2006 standard, the first airline in the country to achieve this level. The standard specifies principles and requirements at the organization level for quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals. It includes requirements for the design, development, management, reporting and verification of an organization's GHG inventory. The airline sees it as an important step in its commitment to reducing emissions. Read more ...
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Washington DC airports provides public with online access to local aircraft noise and flight tracking data
Tue 1 Dec 2009 - The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) has set up a new online noise and flight tracking tool, called Airscene, on its website. It will provide direct access to archival data in the region around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport. Due to security concerns, live flight tracks will not be available. Noise data is loaded into the system each night and can be viewed the next day, with flight track data generally available within 72 hours after the flight occurs. Read more ...
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