GREENAIR NEWSLETTER 15 JUNE 2017
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European airport sector raises its ambitions by doubling earlier pledge on carbon neutrality
Wed 14 Jun 2017 – The European airport sector has agreed to double the number of carbon-neutral airports from an original target of 50 airports by 2030 to 100. Currently, 27 airports have reached this status and at their industry’s annual congress that started today, a further 26 airports in the region announced their commitment to join them. The European airport association ACI Europe first launched its Airport Carbon Accreditation programme in 2009 and since then 116 European airports have been certified at one of the four levels, with carbon neutrality the highest. The programme has now been rolled out globally across all ACI regions with 190 airports now taking part. ACI Europe also reported at its meeting the CO2 reductions for the past year from participants and announced Munich Airport had been adjudicated by the programme’s independent advisory board as this year’s winner of its Eco-Innovation Award.
The pledge to have 50 carbon-neutral European airports by 2030 was made during the UNFCCC COP 21 climate negotiations in 2015 held in Paris. With its annual congress taking place in the French capital eighteen months on, ACI Europe’s President, Augustin de Romanet, who is also CEO of French airport group ADP, said: “Europe’s airports are fully behind the objective of keeping global warming well below 2ᵒC and aiming to reach 1.5ᵒC. For its part, the airport industry has already moved from words to actions a while ago through our independent carbon management programme.
“We are already more than half way to our initial commitment, so we thought we could do even better. And looking at how some have just stepped out from the Paris Agreement, we thought we could definitely do better. So I am extremely proud to announce that we are doubling our commitment.”
Among the 26 airports that announced their neutrality intentions are London Heathrow, Brussels, Zurich, Munich and London City, as well as the ADP group of airports.
The ACI carbon programme is independently administered by WSP and its advisory board includes representatives from ICAO, UNFCCC, UNEP, ECAC, the European Commission, US FAA and Manchester Metropolitan University.
“Less than two years ago here in Paris, 195 countries signed the Paris Agreement under the motto of ‘we can, we must, we will’. Today’s announcement by ACI Europe about its increased climate neutral ambition is very much in the same spirit and sets a great example for other industries and sectors to follow,” said Niclas Svenningsen, head of the UNFCCC’s Climate Neutral Now initiative. “We at UNFCCC welcome the continued efforts of the airport industry and support all the airports that are taking action to combat climate change.”
Under the programme, European airports saved a total of 154,351 tonnes of CO2 during the past year of certifications.
“For airports, carbon management is as much about being at the forefront of corporate and social responsibility as it is about business continuity,” said de Romanet. “Climate change poses a significant risk to the airport industry – changes in rainfall, temperature variations, sea-level rise, changes in wind patterns. All of these have potentially severe implications for our industry, for the wider transport sector and for European connectivity.”
ACI Europe’s Eco-Innovation Award went to Munich Airport “for its comprehensive and systematic approach to environmental management and sustainability across all its operations and in relation to all its impact.” The independent jury commended the airport’s management involvement strategy, including the correlation between management remuneration and sustainability KPIs, the cooperation with the German sustainable alternative fuels group Aireg, and the biodiversity engagement through measures to protect flora and fauna around the airport. The jury also noted the airport’s implementation of extensive noise and emissions monitoring, including bio-monitoring of air quality. Budapest Airport was highly commended in the same awards category.
Munich Airport CEO Michael Kerkloh was elected at the Paris meeting to succeed Augustin de Romanet as President of ACI Europe.
Links:
ACI Europe , ACI EUROPE Resolution for 100 Carbon Neutral Airports by 2030 , Airport Carbon Accreditation
Wildlife traffickers continue to profit from vulnerabilities in the global air transportation system, finds report
Tue 13 Jun 2017 – Illegal wildlife trafficking – the fourth largest black market in the world and worth over $20 billion annually to criminal organisations – is now widespread at airports across 114 countries, finds a report published on behalf of ROUTES, a partnership of US government agencies and representatives from transportation and conservation organisations formed to combat the practice. The high profits and low risk associated with trafficking through airports have attracted sophisticated criminal networks able to exploit the security vulnerabilities in the global air transportation system and the corruption at some airports. A ROUTES partner, IATA has become actively involved in the war against trafficking and at last week’s AGM in Cancun, 12 more airlines joined the 27 others that have signed a declaration committing the industry to tackling the illegal trade. IATA also signed an extension agreement with airports body ACI to work more closely together on the issue.
The ROUTES (Reducing Opportunities for Unlawful Transport of Endangered Species) report, ‘Flying Under the Radar: Wildlife Trafficking in the Air Transport Sector’, was produced by C4ADS, a Washington DC-based non-profit that reports on global conflicts and transnational security issues. It analysed airport seizures of ivory, rhino horn, birds and reptiles from January 2009 to August 2016. Collectively, these four categories account for two-thirds of all trafficked wildlife, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
The report finds wildlife trafficking is now a global problem across all continents that takes advantage of enforcement loopholes, lack of awareness, limited public and private sector coordination, capacity gaps, and lagging technology and procedures to move illicit products through the licit transportation system.
The seizure data indicates traffickers tend to rely on large hub airports and use various strategies to evade detection depending on the category. Tin foil, for example, has been used for years to hide ivory and other illicit products. The analysis also shows that checked luggage, rather than air cargo, appears to be the most common transport method used by traffickers across all four categories.
The country with the most reports of wildlife trafficking in the air transport sector is China, largely due to its role in the ivory trade, followed by Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. The United States is ranked tenth by number of seizures. There is also a potential health risk to animals and even humans posed by trafficking. To combat the risk of imported birds bringing in diseases such as bird flu, the US currently prohibits the importation of birds or eggs from 49 countries, yet 38% of bird seizures recorded by C4ADS originated in at least one of these countries.
The specific roles airports play within the international trafficking system are largely dependent on their geographic location, says the report. Most African airports, for example, are origin points for illicit ivory shipments but airports in the Greater Horn of Africa are generally transit points. Similarly, Middle Eastern airports serve as common transit points for ivory moving from East or Southern Africa to Asia, while European airports are frequently used to move ivory from West Africa to Asia. Southeast and East Asian airports are predominantly destinations.
Since hub airports have a variety of international flight routes available for traffickers to choose from, they are more likely to be exploited than smaller, regional airports and, as a result, international airlines based at major hubs are disproportionately exposed. “Targeting these chokepoints will have a larger impact on traffickers’ operations than focusing on regional airports alone,” suggests C4ADS, which makes a number of recommendations covering awareness, training, enforcement, prevention and seizure reporting.
“As international travel continues to exponentially increase, particularly in the air transport sector, enforcement and the private sector should make immediate changes to better stem the international flow of illicit wildlife,” says the report’s author, Mary Utermohlen. “Without such changes, wildlife traffickers will continue to find the illegal wildlife trade a profitable, comparatively easy and low-risk enterprise, at substantial detriment to ecosystems, economies and global security.”
IATA took up the battle against wildlife trafficking two years ago when it signed a cooperation agreement with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to cooperate on reducing the illegal trade, as well as ensuring the safe and secure transport of legally traded wildlife.
In March 2016, IATA, Airports Council International (ACI) and a number of airlines signed a declaration at Buckingham Palace aimed at reducing the illegal trade of wildlife as part of the ‘United for Wildlife’ initiative created by the Royal Foundation of The Duke & Duchess of Cambridge & Prince Harry (see article).
At last week’s IATA AGM in Cancún, IATA and ACI signed an annex to their MoU agreement to extend cooperation on developing and promoting measures to assist in combatting the trade. This includes, for example, raising awareness with both staff and public, engagement with enforcement authorities and conservation organisations, and developing recommended practices that identify practical solutions for prevention. Such measures, they said, will assist employees working with passengers, baggage or cargo to identify and report suspicious behaviour and unusual shipments to the relevant authorities.
However, said Jon Godson, Assistant Director of Environment at IATA, one of the biggest challenges the industry faces is a lack of communication from those same enforcement agencies. “Airlines are rarely informed if there has been a wildlife seizure from a passenger or cargo shipment carried by their aircraft,” he reported. “Data like this can demonstrate not only high risk routes, species and concealment methods but also the truly global nature of this exploitation.”
He said legislation to counter wildlife trafficking had been in place for 40 years yet was still increasing year on year. “The conventional wisdom was that trafficking is an enforcement agency issue and was restricted to air cargo but new data and this ROUTES report shows that this is a global issue and there has been a huge shift towards carriage by passengers.
“As airline staff spend longer with passengers than any border agency does, so we can pick up on unusual movements and suspicious behaviour, oversized baggage and strange routings, and the intelligence can be passed on to the authorities.”
Godson said he was talking to enforcement authorities about forming public/private partnerships, along with the message: “If you want us to provide information on suspicious activity then you must provide us with feedback – where the law allows – if we have been successful and that prosecution has occurred, because at the moment it’s a one-way street.”
The good news, he said, was that a year on from the Buckingham Palace declaration, more and more airlines from across the world were joining the fight against trafficking.
Commenting on the report produced by C4ADS, Michelle Owen, the ROUTES Partnership Lead, said: “This analysis provides a global perspective on what many in the airline industry are already seeing at the regional level: transport infrastructure is being abused to facilitate the trafficking of wildlife. There are a variety of low-cost and high-impact solutions available that airports and airlines can take to help address this issue. ROUTES is developing resources to raise awareness and build capacity within the air transport sector, and to support leaders within the transport industry who have made commitments to assist with tackling wildlife trafficking.”
The ROUTES Partnership is a five-year (2015-2020) collaboration project funded by USAID, a US government agency set up by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 that works to end extreme global poverty and provide assistance to developing countries. ROUTES partners include the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS), Freeland, IATA, WWF and other US agencies. It is coordinated by the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC.
ROUTES is hosting a free webinar on June 21 (10am EDT) with a presentation on the overview of the C4ADS report.
High potential in North America for low-carbon jet fuels but unlikely to make impact on ICAO emissions goal
Mon 12 Jun 2017 – North America has a higher potential for the production of sustainable alternative jet fuels than other regions of the world because of its available resources but it is unlikely that switching to low-carbon fuels alone can make the necessary reductions in carbon emissions projected by ICAO to ensure the carbon-neutral growth goal after 2020, concludes a US study. Due to the high expense of alternative fuels relative to the projected low costs of offsets under the ICAO CORSIA scheme that starts in 2021 and the delayed transition from collective to individual offset responsibility, the incentive to switch is greatly reduced for an airline, particularly in the early years. The study by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) says robust policy support will therefore be needed to spur alternative fuel deployment at the scale needed to make a substantial contribution to CORSIA commitments.
International aviation greenhouse gas emissions from US and Canadian airlines increased from 36.2 to 60.2 million tonnes per year from 1990 through to 2015, and are projected to keep growing by an average 2.6% per year until 2035 – when CORSIA (Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation) is due to end – although lower than the predicted 4.3% global average. Under the scheme, the US and Canadian carriers will need to reduce their international aviation emissions to around 69 million metric tonnes by 2030.
North American carriers could be well positioned to develop low-carbon alternative jet fuels (AJF) from domestic feedstock supply, though their impact on emissions reductions depends strongly on the mix of feedstocks used. Fuels made from wastes, agricultural residues or energy crops will make the largest GHG reductions, whereas the impact of fuels made from food crops is more limited because of indirect land-use change emissions that undermine their GHG benefits relative to traditional petroleum-based jet fuels.
Therefore, to make meaningful GHG reductions through fuel switching, says the ICCT briefing, care must be taken to support fuels with the lowest environmental impacts. Those that offer low life-cycle carbon intensity in conjunction with high feedstock availability have the greatest potential.
Currently, the cheaper and more abundant feedstocks generally require more advanced technology and are more expensive to convert into fuel, whereas more expensive feedstocks, such as vegetable oils, require relatively little processing. For each feedstock category, a variety of conversion processes may be used to produce an AJF and some may be blended in higher concentrations than others. Overall, life-cycle analysis results suggest the steepest reductions come from utilising either wastes or cellulosic feedstocks.
There could be a substantial amount of low-carbon AJF feedstock, says ICCT, citing the US Department of Energy’s ‘2016 Billion-Ton Report’ that assessed the potential bioenergy supply in the United States towards 2040 across a variety of different economic scenarios and different feedstock price levels. The middle-price scenario projects that by 2030 there would be around 350 million tonnes of agricultural resources available, comprised of 50% energy crops, 40% agricultural residues and 10% woody crops. However, these feedstocks are highly sensitive to price, with many competing demands for biomass, notably from the road transport sector. Jet fuel only comprises 11% of US transportation fuel consumption. The supply of low-carbon feedstocks depends strongly on the price they can command in the market, while the aviation industry is highly sensitive to the fuel price.
The supply of used cooking oil and other types of waste fats that are currently being used to produce AJF by ventures such as AltAir in California is likely to be constrained in the future and only marginally increase in the period through to 2040. Nearly the entirety of the existing supply is being taken by the road transport, livestock and industrial sectors, notes a study cited by ICCT.
The annual jet fuel demand for international aviation in Canada and the US is projected to increase to around 10 billion gallons by 2035. Based on existing supply agreements between airlines and biofuel producers, only 112 million gallons of low-carbon AJF are expected to be readily available by 2025, less than 1% of jet fuel demand.
If, hypothesises ICCT, the aviation sector had access to 3% of agricultural biomass from residues and energy crops in 2035, this would translate to an additional 640 million gallons of ultralow-carbon AJF, the equivalent of displacing around 8% of North American jet fuel consumption by 2035. Assuming a carbon-intensity reduction of 80%, international aviation emissions could be abated by around 6.4 million tonnes annually by 2035, about 20% of the amount needed to meet the carbon-neutral growth target for the region.
Although in theory AJFs could deliver the remaining reductions, “extremely strong” policy support would be necessary and sustainable feedstocks diverted from other sectors, suggests ICCT, which says a valuable opportunity for policymakers exists to guide deployment towards the lowest carbon fuels at the outset before significant investments are made in higher carbon alternatives.
With the high expense of AJFs relative to the low projected cost of offsets in the near future making it unlikely CORSIA alone will drive high levels of fuel switching, the ICCT briefing makes a number of recommendations for supplementary policies that specifically incentivise AJF production in Canada and the United States, along with full life-cycle emissions accounting to ensure GHG targets are met.
Canada’s proposed Clean Fuels Program, for example, provides a solid foundation for incentivising the most effective AJFs because it uses a Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) structure that rewards fuels in proportion to their carbon intensity. An opt-in clause for jet fuels could benefit AJF producers with LCFS credits without implementing a carbon-intensity target for the aviation sector, so providing the industry with some of the benefits of the Program.
This alone would likely not level the playing field because the road sector’s demand and willingness to pay would still outcompete aviation, says ICCT, so it might be necessary to introduce a supplementary policy that sets aside some support solely for the aviation sector. A blending mandate or other aviation sector-specific target would help to create a market for AJFs in the absence of a strong value signal from CORSIA, it also suggests.
However, it concludes, when considering all the challenges, it is likely the bulk of aviation emissions reductions will be achieved through carbon offsets and efficiency improvements.
ICAO and airlines reinforce support for CORSIA following US decision to quit Paris climate agreement
Thu 8 Jun 2017 – ICAO and the airline industry have moved to dampen fears that the Trump administration’s decision to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement could damage the global CORSIA CO2 scheme. During a keynote address on Monday to the IATA Annual General Meeting in Cancun, Mexico, ICAO Council President Dr Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu said the scheme was on track and any concerns over “recent developments” should be dispelled. IATA Director General Alexandre de Juniac described the US withdrawal as “disappointing” but said it was not a setback for CORSIA as the the two agreements were “completely separate”. US airline trade body Airlines for America (A4A) said its members remained committed to both the CORSIA and ICAO aircraft CO2 standard agreements. The IATA AGM also passed a resolution calling for governments to adopt policies in support of sustainable aviation fuel deployment.
The then President, Barack Obama, announced the United States’ decision to participate in the first voluntary phase of CORSIA in a Leaders’ Statement signed with Canada and Mexico in June 2016. This was followed in December by another joint statement with China, in which the two countries supported the adoption of the global market-based measure “and expect to be early participants in such measure”.
To lose the United States from the start in 2021 of the CORSIA pilot and first voluntary phases would be a damaging but not necessarily fatal blow to the scheme, unless other major aviation countries like China followed suit. According to ICAO, the 70 countries – Nigeria is the latest to join – that have so far agreed to participate in the initial pilot and voluntary phases account for 87.7% of scheduled international aviation activity, as measured in revenue tonne-kilometres (RTKs), which is the current proxy for CO2 emissions from international aviation in the absence of complete country-by-country emissions data reporting. ICAO’s reported RTK country-by-country data for 2014 shows the United States accounted for 11.7% of global RTKs from international aviation, a share almost identically matched by China. The United States share of overall global CO2 emissions is 14.34%, according to Wikipedia.
Having lobbied for their inclusion in the global market-based measure that was adopted by the ICAO Assembly last October, as well as playing an active part in the design process of CORSIA, US airlines say they remain keen to participate in the scheme from the start. They also reiterate their support for US adoption of the global aircraft CO2 standard agreed by ICAO that requires formal Congress approval.
“US airlines, as part of the global aviation coalition that successfully advocated for the ICAO fuel and efficiency standard for future aircraft and the carbon offsetting mechanism for international aviation, remain committed to both agreements and to working with the administration and Congress towards a more environmentally-friendly future,” an A4A spokesman told GreenAir.
The US State Department told Reuters the CORSIA agreement was, like other previous administration policies, under review and that there was no deadline for action.
In his industry report to the IATA AGM, de Juniac said: “Let me reassure you that the disappointing decision of the US to back out of the Paris Agreement is not a setback for CORSIA. They are completely separate agreements. The alternative to CORSIA is a patchwork of measures that would be ineffective, costly and unmanageable. Our membership remains united behind CORSIA and our climate change goals.”
The 70 countries that were now on board with CORSIA represented at least 80% of anticipated growth in carbon emissions during the course of the scheme, he said, which is set to run until 2035. “And we encourage more States to join,” he added.
“Aviation stands at the forefront of industries combatting climate change. We can be proud. But we must not be complacent. Our 2050 goal is to cut net emissions to half of what they were in 2005.”
Without referring to the Trump decision directly, in his keynote Dr Aliu told the airline chiefs attending the AGM: “I wish to stress that CORSIA demonstrates not only concrete leadership and social responsibility on climate change, but also simple and sound economic sense for airlines all over the world. We should dispel any concerns that recent developments on the Paris Agreement will negatively impact our shared planning for effective and globally aligned aviation emissions mitigation, and I would urge you all to enthusiastically and promptly promote CORSIA’s full implementation.”
The sustainable alternative aviation fuels resolution approved at the AGM calls on governments to implement policies to accelerate the deployment of such fuels, including the creation of the appropriate regulatory framework to further the development of production facilities. Such policies could, says the resolution, provide easier access to finance, such as loan guarantees and capital grants; support demonstration plants and supply chain R&D; put these fuels on an equal footing with automotive fuels through equivalent public incentives; and provide legislative certainty over an extended period of time to give investors confidence to finance new production facilities.
“While offsetting is critical to managing emissions in the short term, in the long term we rely on clean technology improvements to achieve our goals,” commented de Juniac. “Sustainable aviation fuels are an integral part of our comprehensive strategy but at the moment they are not being produced in enough quantity at a competitive cost.”
IATA said the industry was committed to ensuring the fuels conformed to robust sustainability standards and was playing a leading role within an ICAO working group to define globally harmonised sustainability requirements for the fuels in the context of CORSIA.
“It is important people are reassured that CORSIA-compliant sustainable aviation fuels will be held to the highest environmental standards,” promised de Juniac. “Our resolution makes clear our determination that we will only use such fuels that conserve ecological balance, and avoid the depletion of natural resources.”
In other AGM news, Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong was appointed to succeed Willie Walsh, CEO of International Airlines Group, as Chairman of the IATA Board of Governors, who was praised by de Juniac.
“It was great to see the historic CORSIA agreement being achieved during his tenure as Chairman,” said de Juniac. “Willie has been a long-time advocate for a market-based measure to help meet our climate change commitments.”
Goh said he would be paying “special attention” to progressing preparations for CORSIA. “CORSIA is something we arrived at after many years of discussion within the industry. It is a major step that personally I am very glad has taken place,” he said in an IATA AGM video interview. “Of course, as far as the environment is concerned, it is never enough – you have to do more. As an industry we must look at what else we can do together.”
IATA reported passenger demand is expected to grow by 7.4% in 2017, the same growth rate as 2016 and 2.3 percentage points higher than previously forecast. This translates into an additional 275 million passengers over 2016, bringing the anticipated number of passengers carried during 2017 to 4.1 billion. If achieved, said IATA, this would be the largest year-on-year growth in absolute passenger numbers ever recorded.
With jet kerosene prices expected to average $64/barrel this year, the total industry fuel bill is predicted to be $129 billion, slightly below the 2016 level of $133 billion, and accounting for 18.8% of the industry’s total costs.
Airlines are anticipated to take delivery of around 1,850 new aircraft in 2017, around half of which will replace older and less fuel-efficient aircraft, and will expand the global fleet by 3.8% to 28,645 commercial aircraft.
Qantas will host next year’s IATA AGM in Sydney.
Produced by AltAir and supplied by SkyNRG, Bombardier and Swedavia take sustainable jet fuel deliveries
Thu 1 Jun 2017 – SkyNRG has completed deliveries of sustainable aviation biofuels on behalf of Bombardier Business Aircraft and Swedish airport operator Swedavia. Bombardier’s demonstration fleet was refuelled with a biofuel blend at the KLM Jet Center in Amsterdam while en route to the European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (EBACE) in Geneva. The biofuel was produced by AltAir Fuels at its California biorefinery and SkyNRG was partnered in the delivery by aviation jet fuel supplier AEG Fuels. AltAir also produced the sustainable fuel supplied by SkyNRG and Air BP to Swedavia at Gothenburg Airport. The airport operator was receiving its first volume in 2017 of the fuel through its partnership with the Fly Green Fund that enables organisations and individuals in the Nordic region to reduce their carbon footprint by flying on sustainable aviation fuel.
Bombardier’s demonstration fleet – a Learjet 75, Challenger 350, Challenger 650 and Global 6000 aircraft – had been recently refuelled with biofuel at Los Angeles International Airport on flights to US and Canadian destinations before their onward journeys across the Atlantic.
“These biofuel-powered flights further demonstrate Bombardier Business Aircraft’s commitment to sustainability as an integral part of how it conducts its business,” said Jean-Christophe Gallagher, the manufacturer’s VP and GM Customer Experience. “Ensuring and demonstrating that our products are capable and ready to support industry objectives on emissions reductions is an important part of this commitment.
It was AEG Fuels first involvement in the delivery of sustainable jet fuel, which Greg Fox, Executive VP General Aviation, described as a milestone for the company. “We are taking the right steps in the development of a rapidly growing renewable fuel business,” he said.
SkyNRG CEO Maarten van Dijk said he hoped the flights would inspire other operators in the business aircraft segment to start flying on sustainable fuels.
The Fly Green Fund was founded by SkyNRG, NISA and Karlstad Airport in 2015, and other partners include SAS, KLM, BRA and EFS, as well as Swedavia. The initiative aims to secure funding to kick-start the market for sustainable aviation fuels in the Nordic region. Contributions from corporate customers and individuals are used 75% for the supply of jet biofuel and 25% towards production in the region.
“Swedavia’s support demonstrates that an airport can play an important role in making the aviation industry more sustainable,” said SkyNRG CFO Theye Veen. “It has set a great example for airports worldwide and we hope this will motivate other organisations to follow their example and start flying sustainable.”
Added Charlotte Ljunggren, Airport Director of Swedavia’s Gothenburg Landvetter Airport: “By joining Fly Green Fund two years ago we’ve taken an important and concrete step to reduce our climate impact. It’s great to see that our early involvement now really pays off and we’re proud to fly 100% fossil free in 2017.”
Another similar initiative involving SkyNRG is the KLM Corporate BioFuel Programme, in which the investment by the participants is used to help bridge the price difference between conventional fuel and sustainable biofuel. They pay a surcharge that covers the price differential on their staff business travel but allows them to claim reductions in their resulting CO2 emissions. Eight other Dutch organisations have now been joined by the Delft University of Technology, which aims to reduce staff travel CO2 emissions by around 10% per flight.
“By joining the Programme, the university wishes to emphasise the importance of sustainable civil aviation,” said Tim van der Hagen, Chairman of the university’s board of supervisors. “Alongside our research into sustainable biofuels – including the development of bio-jet fuels – we believe it’s important that our staff fly as sustainably as possible.”
SkyNRG has recently had its certification renewed by the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials.
Lufthansa Cargo picks up environmental responsibility business award for fuel-saving data tool
Thu 1 Jun 2017 – Lufthansa Cargo has received the 2017 DQS German Award for Excellence in the Environmental Responsibility category for its data collection tool OMEGA that provides key information for reducing fuel consumption and carbon emissions. It was one of a number of awards made to businesses by global management systems certification body DQS for a commitment to sustainability practices. Developed by aviation software specialist Honeywell Aviaso together with Lufthansa, the Ops Monitor and Efficiency Gap Analyser (OMEGA) uses data collected during cargo flights to make future flights more fuel efficient by comparing projected, actual and optimal values. Pilots can use the analysis to best prepare for a flight and identify any deviations from the plan early on. The cargo carrier has a goal to reduce specific carbon emissions by 25% by 2020 from a 2005 baseline.
“Lufthansa Cargo has set itself ambitious goals in the field of climate and environmental responsibility. We are delighted to have received an award for OMEGA as one of our numerous measures aimed at improving the ecological efficiency of flight operations and achieving our targets,” said Bettina Jansen, Head of Environmental Management.
The OMEGA system collects large quantities of real data directly from the aircraft – around 20,000 lines in Excel multiplied by 80 parameters – and data is saved every two seconds. As well as weather conditions, it evaluates information on speed or flap position.
It is the “big picture” the airline is looking at, said Michael Lingemann, an OMEGA specialist in the fuel management team. “With OMEGA, we are not focusing on an individual flight, but seeking to identify patterns,” he explained.
Although the tool collects a lot of data, it is not well-suited to performance measurement analysis. “The data is merely a recommendation,” said Björn Ostertag, Head of Punctuality and Fuel Efficiency Management. “In the end, it is the pilot who decides. Nevertheless, the tool does have a lot to say as it is being used now by DFS [the German air navigation service provider] and Eurocontrol to analyse airways in an effort to find shorter routes and optimise approach procedures and routings.”
To meet its 25% specific carbon emissions reduction goal, Lufthansa Cargo is progressing wider fuel efficiency through flight optimisation and weight reduction initiatives. As well as reducing aircraft weight by removing surplus equipment and digitising paper documentation, it is switching standard cargo containers with lightweight alternatives. It is also replacing its MD-11F freighters with Boeing 777F aircraft, which emit around 17% less CO2 per tonne.
Links:
Lufthansa Cargo – Environmental responsibility , Lufthansa Cargo – OMEGA , Honeywell Aviaso , DQS German Awards for Excellence
European airports’ carbon neutrality 2030 goal passes half way point as Gatwick and Lyon reach highest level
Wed 31 May 2017 – London Gatwick and Lyon-Saint Exupéry have become the latest European airports to achieve the highest carbon-neutral level of the industry’s Airport Carbon Accreditation programme. This brings the total of carbon neutral airports in Europe to 27, over half way to reaching an industry goal of 50 by 2030, with four other airports in Asia and one in North America also having reached Level 3+ neutrality. Lyon initially entered the programme at the first ‘Mapping’ level of the programme in 2013 and has since worked its way up through the four levels. To coincide with its announcement of reaching carbon neutrality status, Gatwick has published its ‘Decade of Change’ report for 2016 which charts progress against 10 environmental and community-focused targets the airport has set itself for the 2010-2020 period.
It is now over seven years since Stockholm-Arlanda achieved certification from airports trade body ACI Europe as the world’s first carbon-neutral airport and there are currently 116 airports in Europe accredited across the four levels, which together handle 64.9% of European passenger traffic.
To achieve carbon-neutrality, Lyon has engaged in a variety of activities ranging from direct reduction of its carbon emissions, switching to cleaner sources of energy and engaging 20 companies on its airport site to lower their emissions. It has offset the remaining 4,600 tonnes of CO2 emissions under the airport operator’s control through the purchase of carbon credits retired against a Cambodian project.
Lyon is the second French airport to achieve carbon neutrality, after Nice Côte d’Azur became the first in 2016.
“Lyon-Saint Exupéry plays an invaluable role in its region and the whole of France,” commented ACI Europe Director General Olivier Jankovec. “Its latest achievement of becoming carbon neutral speaks volumes about its commitment to sustainability and it is something that all of the team there can be justifiably proud of.”
Gatwick can now lay claim to becoming London’s first carbon neutral airport and the second busiest in Europe. It has used 100% renewable energy since 2013 and offsets for the remaining 11,425 tonnes (Scope 1, residual Scope 2 and Scope 3 business travel emissions). The Gold Standard carbon credits retired by Gatwick help support the Kar-demir Bozyaka wind farm project in Izmir province, Turkey.
Its ‘Decade of Change’ report highlights a 5% reduction in annual carbon emissions from fuel and energy in 2016, and a 2.6% drop in annual energy consumption per passenger.
The report also covers the building of its new waste management plant that opened recently, which Gatwick says makes it the first airport in the world to turn both food and packaging waste into energy waste (see article). Last October, Gatwick signed an agreement with its on-airport taxi company to reduce emissions by 75% per journey by 2020 through the use of either electric or hybrid vehicles, which is estimated will save 2,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. The vehicles will also switch to electric operations only when within a 10-mile radius of the airport to further reduce emissions in the local area.
“We consider sustainability as critical to our future as a successful airport and the news that we are now a carbon neutral airport shows just how far we have come since independent ownership in 2009,” said Gatwick Airport CEO Stewart Wingate. “Our ‘Decade of Change’ strategy is really driving our sustainability performance and today’s results show that we are successfully balancing growth with a reduced environmental footprint, whilst also contributing to the community and thriving local and national economies.”
ACI Europe will announce the carbon reductions achieved by European airports in the eighth year of the accreditation programme (June 2016 to May 2017) during its annual Assembly in Paris next month.
