Aviation emissions, a sectoral approach.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) had its environmental vision chalked out for a post-2012 scenario. It had set ambitious targets for the aviation industry by aiming to build a zero-emissions commercial aircraft within 50 years and capping aviation CO2 emissions starting 2020. The association expected to improve fuel efficiency of the industry by 1.5% per year from 2009 to 2020 and further reduce 50% of its emissions by 2050. Regional airline associations from around the world urged the member states of the International Civil Aviation organization (ICAO) to agree on a global framework for the industry and adopt a sectoral approach to mitigate its carbon emissions.

The industry sought to bring international aviation under a post-Kyoto framework that did not distort competition amongst airline companies. It sought help from the governments to fund its research in fuel standards, incentives to replace existing fleet with fuel efficient aircrafts and modernize air traffic management technologies. It considered many options including sustainability of biofuels as a substitute for aviation fuel since the use of biofuels (from sources such as algae, jatropha, camelina biomass) as ‘drop-in’ fuels, was tested successfully. These fuels, considered environmentally sound, did not require major adaptation of aircrafts and by blending biofuels with existing jet fuel, emissions were expected to reduced by an additional 5%.

The implementation of advanced systems in air traffic management (ATM) was targeted to provide 4% emission reductions by 2020. The working ATM systems include Single European Sky (SESAR), which was likely to produce a 70% cut in route extension, while the Next Generation Air Traffic Management system in the USA was expected to reduce delays to 57%.

Some of the other options included airport domain improvements for the purpose of annual fuel savings which was based on Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) and Continuous Descent Arrival (CDA. CDA is expected to save up to 630 kg of carbon dioxide per landing. In all, seamless global treatment of the aviation industry as one sector would ensure a huge reduction in its emissions. On a global basis, cutting flight times by one minute per flight expected to save 4.8 million tons of Carbon dioxide every year on a global basis. Boeing’s Tailored Arrival concept, that enables aircrafts to descend uninterrupted on low engine power at constrained air space, maximized fuel efficiency and minimized any environmental impact of aviation. This concept established a predictable continuous descent rather than fuel intensive step-down descent by integrating air and ground automation through digital datalink.

On an overview, all stakeholders including manufacturers, research centers, airport authorities and airline operators in the industry are to develop synergies to create a global system alongside technological improvements to achieve optimum results in reducing aviation emissions.




(With Inputs from www.euractive.com and www.iata.org)