The problem and the plan

“There are real situations in the world right now that are putting pressure on the path that we want to take as an industry towards sustainability,” Matthew Jessee, Satair’s head of business development for global distribution, said. “But I think we have to stay committed to that and we have to really challenge ourselves to bring a more sustainable product to the market.”

Aviation accounts for roughly two percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, a figure that is expected to grow as air travel increases in the coming years. The soot emissions of today’s conventional aircraft engines have also been linked to air pollution and a study from the Climate Action Network and International Coalition for Sustainable Aviation found that when factoring in the industry’s non-CO2 impacts, “aviation contributes an estimated 4.9% to the global warming problem”.

In 2021, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents 290 airlines that account for over 80 percent of total air traffic, adopted a resolution to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The plan calls for a total reduction of 21.2 gigatons of carbon via a combination of minimising the sector’s direct emissions and using methods like carbon capture and offsetting schemes to make up the balance.

Pressured from all sides

Frank Preli, VP of propulsion and materials technologies at Pratt & Whitney, said that despite the myriad of challenges right now, the industry’s “push for sustainability is as strong as it's ever been. In fact, it’s getting stronger and stronger.”

“We're seeing airlines really pulling on the sustainability agenda,” Preli said. “We're even seeing investors insisting that companies can prove to them that they're a sustainable company with sustainable products before they will invest.”

It’s not just investor pressure. The industry is being prodded from all directions. Not least from the public. In recent years, there has been a growing and increasingly vocal denunciation of flying for environmental reasons. While flygskam (flight shaming) doesn’t seem to have become the widespread movement the industry feared, it’s becoming more common to factor emissions into travel plans.

“Anybody booking a flight today would expect a little tick box giving them the option to compensate their CO2,” Joost Groenenboom, aviation principal at the consultancy ICF, said.

Airlines also face legislative pressure in the form of schemes like the EU Emissions Trading System and fuel efficiency standards from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). New ICAO regulations that set limits on jet engines’ nitrogen oxide, smoke and non-volatile particulate matter (nvPM) emissions also take effect this year.

Engines power aviation's green future

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Aviation soars above global challenges to stay the course on sustainability