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Twenty countries launched the International Aviation Climate Ambition Coalition
(IACAC) at COP26 on 10 November, committing to working with
each other and through the International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO) "to reduce aviation CO2 emissions at a rate
consistent with efforts to limit the global average temperature
increase to 1.5 degrees C."
However, members of the coalition, the aviation industry, and
other stakeholders who are concerned about the sector's emissions
agreed that the group's formation is only a prelude to the real
business at hand, which is a series of meetings to be hosted by the
ICAO next year to hammer out an industry-wide net-zero plan.
The countries signing up for the pact include four of the six
largest passenger aviation markets: the US (No. 1), Ireland (No.
3), the UK (No. 5), and Japan (No. 6). China, which is in the No. 2
spot, and India, which is ranked fourth, did not join the
coalition.
Fast-growing emissions sector
Aviation accounted for 2.8% of global CO2 emissions in 2019,
according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Due to the
COVID-19 pandemic's impact on flights in 2020 and 2021, the figure
is likely to be lower for a brief period, but as global economies
rebound it will grow at rates above the global average for all
emissions.
"We are more dependent on aviation than ever before," UK Under
Secretary of State for Transport Trudy Harrison said during a press
briefing on 10 November to announce the formation of the IACAC.
Even during the pandemic, when passenger travel was slashed by
90% at times, "we relied on air freight for food and medicines we
needed, and to keep trade moving," she observed.
"Despite commendable improvements in aircraft fuel efficiency
[in the last decade], the industry remains among the
fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions," Harrison
said. "The inherently international nature of aviation provides us
with our greatest opportunity. Only global cooperation can put
aviation on a truly sustainable path, so that we don't simply
displace emissions from another source."
Aviation is considered one of the hardest-to-abate sectors of the
global economy when it comes to GHGs, added US Secretary of
Transportation Pete Buttigieg. "But at a moment like this is,
hard-to-abate is have-to-abate," he said. "Without dramatic, urgent
action there will be substantial emissions growth over the next 30
years."
The US "is making up for lost time" on the issue, Buttigieg
said, referencing the "United States 2021 Aviation
Climate Action Plan," which he had unveiled a day earlier. That
program sets a goal of net zero for US aviation emissions by 2050,
envisioning a mix of strategies, from retiring older,
less-efficient planes, to optimizing flight paths and trajectories,
to expanded use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and,
potentially, electrification of flight.
"We are accelerating our action and commitments," Buttigieg
added. These include grants to accelerate production of SAF to 3
billion gallons per year by 2030. Also, the Department of
Transportation and private investors have lined up $200 million for
new technologies to improve airplane efficiency by 30% by 2030.
The US' net-zero goal is comprehensive. It includes GHG
emissions from domestic aviation (regardless of origin of flight),
international flights by US operators between any two ICAO states,
and emissions generated at airports.
Innovation
To meet the immense challenge, political leaders and industry
participants during the briefing said solutions must cut across
nations and technologies.
"The only way we will meet this challenge is [a hand-in-glove
partnership between] industry, business, and civil society," said
the moderator of the briefing, Gareth Davies, UK Department for
Transport director general, aviation, maritime, international, and
security group.
"Only through the introduction of radical, disruptive technology
will we be able to decarbonize aviation," said ICAO President
Salvatore Sciacchitano. "Fortunately, innovation is in aviation's
DNA."
The CORSIA program is an
example of how the industry can set an ambitious path, Sciacchitano
said. As he and several other panelists at the briefing pointed
out, CORSIA (Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for
International Aviation) is the first worldwide market-based scheme
in any single sector to address CO2 emissions.
Created in 2016 by ICAO members, CORSIA went into effect in
January 2021 for a three-year pilot program through 2023 (and then
full phase-in in 2024). Under CORSIA, 107 nations have committed to
keeping their total combined CO2 emissions at 2020 levels in
subsequent years. Individual airlines can avoid increases in
emissions through efficiency programs, or offset growth in their
emissions by purchasing credits and blending SAF with traditional
jet fuel.
If all goes well, in September 2022 ICAO will meet to take the
next step, which is to develop and ratify at its 41st Annual
Assembly a long-term goal to keep the industry on track to support
the 2050 Paris climate ambitions.
Already, many of the world's largest airlines, airplane engine
makers, and more than 2,000 airports have signed on to a net-zero
2050 commitment for all flights within and departing from Europe,
through the Air Transport Action Group (ATAG), said Haldane Dodd,
acting executive director of ATAG.
"We don't like to make big promises without backup that we can
make them happen," Dodd said of the commitment. "It's going to be
incredibly challenging, and we will need a shift away from fossil
fuels principally to sustainable fuels," as well as the use of some
carbon offsets.
"We need support from governments—truly long-term policy
certainty—and we need much more support from [the] energy
sector than we have seen so far," Dodd said.
"We think 6.5% of our fuel supply [in Europe] can be SAF by
2030. Let's make that [amount] happen, or more," Dodd said.
If SAF production grows as expected, it could change which
countries supply fuels, said Dodd. About 90% of fossil fuel-based
aviation fuel comes from 22 countries, he said, but because the
resources for SAF are spread more widely around the world, he
believes that "democratization" of fuel manufacturing will create
millions of jobs in emerging economies.
Kenya's experience shows how dramatically SAF could change the
supply chain for aviation fuels, said Nancy Kerigithu, principal
secretary in Kenya's State Department for Shipping and Maritime.
ICAO funded a study that's underway to assess how to build a SAF
supply chain in the country.
"Our country's strategic location [makes us] … one of the
leading Africa transport hubs and tourist hubs; 90% of visitors
arrive by air," she said. As one of the members of IACAC, Kenya is
committed to "reducing reliance on fossil fuels," Kerigithu
said.
COP26 is focusing attention on the need for commitments by
buyers of SAF, so that biofuels producers can confidently make the
necessary investments. To that end, a Sustainable Aviation Buyers
Alliance (SABA) announcement on 10 November that new supporters
joined the group builds momentum behind the shift. Amazon Air,
Alaska Airlines, JetBlue, and United Airlines said they will commit
to buying SAF, joining existing commitments from Boeing, Bank of
America, Microsoft, and Netflix—all coordinated by the
Environmental Defense Fund and RMI, two US-based environmental
groups.
US biofuels producers are taking notice of the opportunity.
During corporate earnings calls in the last two weeks, the CEOs of
US biofuels producers Green Plains and Calumet Specialty Products
Partners said they can produce SAF from renewable diesel fuel, and
they're just waiting for the proper market signals.
Oil companies are getting into the game as well. Repsol and
Iberia Airlines announced on 4 November that they just completed
the Madrid-Bilbao route on a flight fueled by SAF produced from
waste at an industrial complex in Spain. They estimate that 1.4
metric tons of CO2 were avoided. In October, Repsol had supplied
SAF to a flight by Vueling, also in Spain, produced in this case
from vegetable oils processed at Repsol's Tarragona Industrial
Complex. It avoided 2.5 metric tons of CO2.
Challenges
The good news, said Brad Shallert, World Wildlife Fund's (WWF)
director of carbon market governance and aviation, is that aviation
emissions are being treated with greater urgency than before. WWF
has been advocating for a decade about the need to reduce aviation
CO2 emissions, he said, with its arguments often falling on deaf
ears.
"Industry and governments have not always taken the most
ambitious climate pathways or listened to recommendations
[nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)] have given them," he said.
"But there is greater recognition, even in the aviation industry,
that we need to be using all the tools right now. This means
efficiency, operational measures, and SAF."
CORSIA is a step in the right direction, he said, "not as
something that all NGOs agree on, but as an example of how
governments can come together." ICAO can build on that framework in
setting high goals for 2050, he said.
But Shallert opened a potential Pandora's box by mentioning
another issue as well. "We need to find ways to reduce overall
demand for aviation … which I know is not popular among airlines,"
he said, but he referenced IEA analysis that air travel will have
to be trimmed for the world to meet the 1.5 degrees C climate
goal.
Action needed
Other climate activists saw little substance in the IACAC's
formation, and they said the time for action is now.
"The world is crying out for strong action to address global
aviation emissions. This is not it," Matt Finch, UK policy manager
at Transport & Environment, a Brussels-based group, said in a
statement. "At a COP dedicated to raising ambition, it is
disappointing that these states continue to rely on the UN's deeply
flawed aviation agency."
But IACAC members believe that they are changing the dynamic.
"Now, 20 states … have shown the ambition to drive
decarbonization," said the UK's Harrison. "We hope this will
kickstart cooperation among governments … a greener, sustainable
destination is so important for our cause."
"Aviation is a driver of economic growth … particularly in
developing countries," said a representative of Costa Rica's
government, speaking on behalf of Minister of Environment and
Energy Andrea Meza Murillo. "We firmly believe more ambitious and
aspirational goals [for decarbonization] can be achieved."
Gareth Davies, the UK minister who was moderator of the event,
summed up the situation by noting "the breadth of support but also
the depth of this support. We all recognize … this is hard. That
means we all need to step up, and we all need to play our
roles."
Or, as a quote from US aviator Amelia Earhardt shown during a
video during the event succinctly stated: "The most effective way
to do it is to do it."
Posted 10 November 2021 by Kevin Adler, Chief Editor