Aviation industry to benefit from low-carbon goals

The aviation industry will benefit from the low-carbon progress, with the industry still making many technological breakthroughs toward low carbon emissions in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, news portal Sina reported on Thursday, citing Dr Fang Liu, the secretary-general of the International Civil Aviation Organization, at this year's Davos Agenda event of the World Economic Forum.

The ICAO works on setting international standards and realizing these standards, said Liu. The sustainable standards will be applied throughout the aviation industry chain.

The progress in aviation industry low carbonization requires the participation of everyone, Liu said.

Despite the impact of the pandemic, aviation enterprises have proposed a lot of innovative plans to greatly promote technological development, such as from hybrid power, electric energy and hydrogen energy, and from high storage battery and sustainable energy for aviation.

It is a consensus that the process of transitioning to new energy should be accelerated, which would benefit everyone, Liu added.

The carbon-neutral flight is still a goal for the aviation industry, and Airbus has turned carbon neutrality into a practical plan that will reveal zero-emission aircraft by 2035, said Grazia Vittadini, chief technology officer at Airbus, as quoted by Sina.

Climate change is no longer a problem to only one company, said Vittadini. In tackling climate change issues, there is a need for multilateral cooperation and cross-industry cooperation, which will be a way for the economy to achieve long-term sustainable recovery.

Currently, 13 airlines have jointly pledged to reach a zero-carbon goal by 2050, including cooperation between technology companies and aviation companies, Vittadini said.

We need a regulatory regime, supporting policies, as well as safe and effective technological measures to achieve the target, Vittadini added.