The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has challenged governments worldwide to take four key steps to support the global aviation sector’s commitment to tackle climate change. Speaking in Hong Kong yesterday, Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and CEO, stressed the need to:

1. 1. Adopt challenging industry targets to stabilise and eventually reduce aviation’s carbon emissions;
2. 2. Manage aviation’s carbon emissions through ICAO under a new ‘Kyoto II’ framework by treating aviation as a global industrial sector;
3. 3. Invest in efficient infrastructure, particularly air traffic management; and
4. 4. Establish fiscal and legal frameworks to promote the rapid development of biofuels for aviation.

Whilst the aviation sector represents a significant source of employment and growth, it also has an increasing contribution to global climate change.

The sector accounts for around 2% of global emissions – around 677mtCO₂ in 2008, expected to grow to 3% by 2050 (IPCC, 2007; ATAG, 2009). Whilst increasing efficiencies have reduced emissions, these have been outstripped by emissions increases due to industry growth; and the industry now consumes around 150m litres of ‘Jet A1′ fuel per year. The aviation sector has few alternative fuel options; and electric drives frequently cited as an alternative road transport option, are not likely to present a viable solution for aviation.

The industry argues that a global sectoral approach is essential to reduce aviation emissions; ensuring that airlines pay for their climate cost just once at a global level, rather than several times over within national targets; or through varying policies across numerous jurisdictions. For example, the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) passed legislation for the inclusion of aviation sector emissions in January 2009, requiring all flights from European airports to consider their carbon liabilities. This is expected to drive emissions reductions on a level playing field, promoting efficiencies and the development and commercialisation of emerging sustainable aviation fuels.

“Aviation is unique among industries. When it comes to environment, no other global industry is as united, ambitious or determined. Our track record clearly shows that aviation is unique in its ability to drive major global changes. For example, IATA rolled-out e-ticketing to every corner of the planet in just 48 months,” said Bisignani.

IATA’s four-pillar strategy to address climate change with modern technology, effective operations, efficient infrastructure and positive economic measures is another example. “Implementing the four-pillar strategy, IATA has already saved over 68 million tonnes of CO₂. This year we expect aviation’s carbon emissions to fall by 7% – some 5% from the recession and 2% as a direct result of our work,” said Bisignani.

Government commitment will be critical for the aviation sector to reduce its emissions, and IATA calls for strong leadership at the Copenhagen summit to reject uncoordinated and opportunistic taxation which ‘does nothing for the environment’ and focus instead on positive emissions reduction activity – such as the air traffic management projects (US NextGen for example).

An industry-wide commitment, formalised in a working paper to be presented to the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) today, will pledge the following targets:

• - Improving fuel efficiency 1.5% on average per year through 2020
• - Stabalising emissions with carbon-neutral growth from 2020
• - Reducing emissions 50% by 2050, compared to 2005.

In order to support this effort, governments must also play a significant role in facilitating and accelerating commercialisation of emerging sustainable feedstocks for large-scale bio-jet fuel production. Along with technological improvements in aircraft, sustainably produced biojet fuels are considered the most viable long-term alternative fuel for the aviation sector, delivering long-term GHG reduction and fuel security (ATAG, 2009). The industry is aiming for carbon neutral growth, with some airlines aiming to operate their fleet on 25% biofuels by 2025 (ATAG, 2009). Studies by Boeing (2009) suggest that microalgae-based biojet fuels provide better fuel specifications than current, traditional Jet A1 fuel, including a better heat combustion, which increases the aircraft’s fuel burn (allows the aircraft to fly for longer on less fuel), potentially by around 1%. This presents a significant financial driver for wider uptake of microalgae-based biojet fuels. Other feedstocks also being explored for biojet fuel production include camelina, jatropha and pongamia piñata, to name a few.

Bio-derived oils from the feedstock are converted into a ‘drop-in’ biojet fuel, via a patented hydrogenation procedure, which produces ‘bio-derived synthetic paraffinic kerosene’ (Bio-SPK) (Taylor, 2009; Boeing, 2009). Test flights have been undertaken using bio-SPK, most notably by Virgin Atlantic, Air New Zealand, Continental Airlines and Japan Airlines using blends of jatropha, camelina and algae (2% blends of algae were used in the latter two) (ATAG, 2009, Boeing, 2009).

Microalgae biofuels have the potential to play a significant role in the long-term sustainability of the aviation sector. However, the major challenges for microalgae-based biojet fuel production are expected to be production at a scale appropriate for aviation consumption, whilst increasing productivities and decreasing cost per hectare (ATAG, 2009). Whilst commercialisation challenges exist, microalgae as a feedstock is considered as ‘the future’ sustainable aviation transport fuel.

Transport Ministers from 21 major countries met in Tokyo last week to discuss the establishment of a global trading scheme for emissions from aviation. The ministers expressed their support for the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) efforts to take action on the growing contribution of the airline industry to the stock of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

A global agreement on airline emissions would be an attractive prospect: it fits much more comfortably with the intercontinental, international nature of air travel. National or regional approaches are open to accusations of unfairness and even illegality from the airline industry. They are also more complex to implement because they have to find a way of dealing consistently with flights that depart from or arrive in countries not covered by the scheme.

Despite the limitations of regional initiatives, the EU has moved to bring airlines into its emissions trading scheme from 2012 onwards. The legislation – a new Directive amending the Directive that originally created the EU ETS – was approved last year.

Emissions from the EU in 2006 by sector. Click to open larger version in a new window. Source: Climatico.

The chart on the right shows the EU’s CO₂ emissions by sector. Emissions from aviation are shown by the red segment on the bar showing CO₂ emissions from transport¹. At first glance, it seems that emissions from airplanes are negligible, and indeed the airline industry contributes only around 3% of all European greenhouse gas emissions today. This is much less than emissions from road transport, and a small fraction of the emissions from the energy, manufacturing and construction sectors currently included in the EU ETS.

While the size of emissions from airplanes is currently fairly small, it has attracted attention because it is growing so quickly. During the period 2006-2020, emissions from air travel are forecast to more than double . The EU will be trying to reduce its emissions by 20% or possibly even 30% during the same period, so a 3% contribution today might translate into a figure closer to 8% by 2020.

As well as seeking to curb its own contribution to climate change, the EU may also be hoping to lead the way for the rest of the world by bringing aviation into a cap-and-trade system. The ICAO’s discussions are in relatively early stages, and it is unclear if and when it will reach an agreement over global emissions from the industry. Following the ICAO’s meeting last week, it was reported that the President of the ICAO’s Council believes that the EU’s approach might form a starting point for a worldwide emissions trading scheme for airplanes.

¹ Planes contribute other greenhouse gases besides CO₂, so strictily speaking looking at CO_­2­ alone gives only a rough indication of the scale of GHG emissions from aviation.