As the aerospace industry continues to decarbonise, what governmental support is there to help manufacturers achieve this? JPB Système’s CEO Damien Marc explains the current state-of-play.
From the Wright brothers and the early days of aviation, through the jet age and the growth of commercial flights, to the increasing strides being made towards commercial space flights, air travel has now become routine in our everyday lives.
With regards to aircraft, our ability to advance from the first ever flight, to ensuring the safety of flight and the subsequent widespread accessibility and availability of airborne travel, could be likened to three separate revolutions. Today, the industry’s current and equally important objective is to accomplish a fourth revolution – decarbonisation.
As a sector, we are one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. Even with improvements (current aircraft have a unit consumption per passenger kilometre five times lower than those manufactured in the 1960s), we must continue to limit global warming to protect the earth we walk on, or in our case, fly over.
GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
Such is the recognised importance of this mission, that a quantifiable commitment at the governmental level is now evident. In April this year, the UK government announced a two-year plan to speed up the design and manufacturing of zero emissions aircraft.
Meanwhile, in France, as part of the government’s wide-ranging ‘France 2030’ investment programme, President Macron recently invested €1.2 billion into research and development (R&D) activities aimed at reducing the environmental impact of aircraft and related products.
This push is also coming from organisations such as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and its Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) scheme. This initiative will have mandatory participation from 2027 and is part of the ICAO’s goal to completely decarbonise the sector by 2050. At the same time, CORAC is focused on ‘aviation of the future’ setting its own goal of decarbonisation by 2035. This governmental and organisational support is very encouraging and helps provide a clear roadmap, as well as the financial might required to support the industry’s efforts in achieving a decarbonised future.
