Brussels, 07/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - According to a study published on Thursday 3 September by the International Council on Clean Transportation, an international organisation concerned with promoting clean transport, improving the fuel consumption of aircraft remains some way below UN targets.
Since 2010, average consumption yield has grown by just 1.1% a year, “which suggests that manufacturers may miss UN aviation body ICAO [International Civil Aviation Organisation - Ed]'s 2020 fuel efficiency goals”, comments Transport & Environment (T&E). According to T&E's calculations, aircraft manufacturers could be nearly 12 years behind the agreed schedule. According to the action plan laid down by ICAO, the rate at which energy yield improves should be in the order of 2% a year between 2010 and 2020.
What makes the situation particularly worrying is the fact that air transport is experiencing a sharp growth curve of nearly 4.1% a year, according to the International Air Transport Organisation (IATA), which makes the question of improving the energy yield and fuel consumption rates particularly critical.
“ICAO must help airlines meet their own climate goals and agree a CO2 standard that actually forces new technology in the fleet, rather than doing business as usual”, comments Andrew Murphy, sustainable aviation officer at T&E.
Over the decades, the rates at which fuel consumption has improved have varied enormously. Having remained unchanged in the 1970s, these rates peaked in the 1980s (2.6% a year on average), before flatlining between 1995 and 2005 and then resuming today's largely unambitious pace. “History has shown again and again that fuel efficiency and transport is highly linked to fuel costs”, the expert explains, going on to express particular concern at current trends given the fact that new aircraft on the market have a lifespan of 20 to 30 years.
The press release goes on to state that if the global aviation sector was a country, it would have ranked seventh in terms of global CO2 emissions, just after Germany. By 2050, the CO2 emissions of the aviation sector are expected to triple, according to the organisation's latest projections, whilst the Air Transport Action Group (ATAG), an international organisation which represents organisations and industries of the aviation sector, has set itself a target of halving CO2 by 50 % compared to 2005 levels. (Pascal Hansens)