8
Flightpath.
AVIATION: AT THE FOREFRONT OF TACKLING THE CLIMATE CHALLENGE
(Indexed to 1990)
300
DE-COUPLING CO2 EMISSIONS FROM AIR TRAFFIC GROWTH
Revenue tonne kilometres (RTKs)
F
250 Indexed to 1990
200
150
CO2 emissions
4.1 billion tonnes of CO2 avoided.
100 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
(Adopted 2009)
AVIATION INDUSTRY’S TARGETS FOR REDUCING EMISSIONS
2010
1.5% p/a fuel efficiency
»
Carbon-neutral growth
2020
2050
-50% CO2
»
Half the net aviation CO2 of 2005
Working towards carbon-neutral growth
Implementation of global sectoral aproach for MBMs
The average annual fuel efficiency improvement since 2010 has been 2.1%.
AVIATION INDUSTRY’S FOUR-PILLAR STRATEGY Invest in new TECHNOLOGY Fly using more efficient OPERATIONS
(incl. sustainable biofuels)
Build and use efficient INFRASTRUCTURE
Use effective, global, MARKET-BASED MEASURES
ew Assemblies of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) would have had quite so many eyes on them as this year’s — the 38th Assembly. The civil aviation-related conference of the world’s governments has taken place since 1947 and, while this year’s will have the usual agenda items dealing with the growth of air transport, safety, security and economic issues, perhaps the most keenly watched item will be the issue of climate change. “This September is going to be pivotal in the world of aviation and climate change,” says Paul Steele, executive director of the industry-wide Air Transport Action Group. “We have a window of opportunity that is now open to us to provide leadership and establish global policy on aviation and climate change. As an industry, we have provided our suggestions of an approach we think is the most practical and easy to implement. It is now up to governments to set in place the way forward.” In 2012, the world’s airlines produced some 689 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2), the most common greenhouse gas. This is around 2% of the total CO2 produced by humans each year. But while aviation has shown strong growth for decades, its carbon intensity — the amount of CO2 released for each unit of productivity, in aviation’s case per seat kilometre flown — has reduced substantially. From the first jet aircraft in the early 1950s, to the modern planes entering today’s fleet, emissions per seat have fallen by well over 70% through new technology alone. Add to that the operational efficiencies and you have an industry that has been taking reduction in fuel use seriously for a long time, in particular in the last » decade.