Print this articleEmail this article THERE is an article from the Observer titled "Can the aviation industry ever be green?" dated January 8 that caught my interest. Being an avid observer of the aerospace industry (both commercial and defence), I began to look back at several past articles to see how serious the main players of the aviation industry -aeroplane manufacturers and airline operators plus their affiliate industry partners - are taking the environment issue into their corporate planning.

I don't have to write about how important the environment is to us and the planet. Tonnes of material have been written about preserving the environment for our future generations. We read news on carmakers developing and building eco-friendly cars for a cleaner environment such as the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid electric car and the Nissan Leaf (acronym for "Leading, Environmentally friendly, Affordable, Family car) compact five-door hatchback electric car. But readers will have to agree with me that we have yet to be made aware whether the world's biggest aircraft manufacturers Boeing, Airbus, Embraer and ATR will even be mulling over developing a plug-in electric commercial passenger aircraft.

According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the aviation industry contributes 20 per cent of the world's man-made carbon dioxide emissions. Some 80 per cent of aviation's greenhouse gas emissions are related to passenger flights exceeding 1,500km, for which there are no practical alternatives, and while demand for air traffic is set to increase by 50 per cent a year for at least the next 20 years, carbon emissions from aviation is expected to grow no more than three per cent of the global total by 2050.

One will question on why it is important for the commercial aviation industry to fully support the green initiative.

One will first of all have to understand that this particular industry has "a unique role in the world's social and economic tapestry", which means it delivers benefits that few other industries or activities can boast. In fact the aviation industry supports nearly eight per cent of the world's economy. According to Oxford Economics, air transport lies at the heart of modernised economies: an average of 2.5 billion passengers and approximately 50 million tonnes of freight are flown annually. It is reported that by 2026 the number of passengers is expected to increase by 145 per cent from 2.5 billion to six billion between 2010 and 2026.

Oxford Economics also said that over 5.5 million are employed directly in the aviation industry worldwide, with a turnover of more than US$1 trillion ($1.34 trillion). If aviation was a country, it would rank 21st in the world in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), generating US$425 billion of GDP, which is considerably larger than some G20 members.

In an address to the UN's climate change meeting in New York, British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh said the International Air Transport Association (IATA) will commit the coalition of airlines, airports and aviation technology firms to cutting emissions by 50 per cent on 2005 levels by 2050.

Under IATA proposals, the industry will commit to improving fuel efficiency by 1.5 per cent a year over the next decade and to ensuring that emissions from the sector peak in 2020 regardless of projected future growth.

IATA further said that, in the short term, improvements in fuel efficiency were expected to deliver a 25 per cent improvement by 2020, while new flying techniques and improvements to air traffic control regimes, such as the proposed overhaul of EU air navigation systems, could deliver significant cuts in emissions.

According to figures from the IATA, there is also evidence that the industry is already exceeding its target to deliver 1.5 per cent improvement in average fuel efficiency each year.

The group expects emissions from the sector to fall 6.5 per cent this year to 623 million tonnes and, while the bulk of those savings is due to reduced demand as a result of the recession, the industry expects a 1.8 per cent improvement in average fuel efficiency to also play a part.

Even so, some analysts say that just keeping emissions static will be a huge challenge to the airline industry. It has always reckoned on rising passenger numbers, and demand reduction isn't really in its lexicon. Hit by a recessionary blip, airlines have been warning business customers off teleconferencing in favour of the virtues of face-to-face meetings.

The simplest way to cut carbon is to cut fuel use. But how can the aviation industry influence major airliners to consider alternative fuel when US commercial airlines alone burn about 50 million gallons of kerosene (the main aviation fuel) every day.

It is in these kind of arguments that sceptics will say that there is no practical alternative fuel in the offing. But environmentalist experts say that the industry can look into "carbon-neutral" biofuels. This has been proven when Virgin Atlantic scored the "industry first" in 2008, flying a 747 to Amsterdam with one of its engines using a 20 per cent biofuel mix made from coconut oil and babassu nuts. Since then, Air New Zealand and Japan Airlines have used biofuels derived from jatropha oil and hardy oilseed-bearing camelina plants as (higher percentages) of the overall fuel mix.

Even Continental has done an experimental flight around the Gulf of Mexico with one engine running entirely on fuel made from microscopic algae.

So hopefully this option can be accepted by all the airline operators worldwide, and we can safely say that we fought to preserve the environment in all sectors. As for me, I am waiting for that moment in the when AirAsia aircraft comes in to Bandar Seri Begawan and plug-in to power up its batteries before flying back to Kuala Lumpur.

The views of the writer are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Brunei Times.

The Brunei Times