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Tag: UN goals

Delta to open innovation lab for low-carbon aviation tech

Posted on by dishanth
Delta to open innovation lab for low-carbon aviation tech

Hosted at the company’s international headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, Delta Air Lines has stated that the ‘sustainable skies lab’ will host teams working to both scale and improve existing technologies and those working on “revolutionary” technologies which do not yet exist commercially. Research, design and testing will all be possible at the lab.

On existing technologies, the aim of the lab is to “connect, align, showcase” and accelerate work already underway at Delta by enabling co-working between teams on issues such as electrifying ground equipment and improving operational efficiencies.

Like many other airlines, Delta is using a mix of changes to operational procedures and aircraft upgrades to drive fuel efficiency, with 10 million fewer gallons of fuel used in 2022 than in 2021 by the firm. Older planes including its Boeing 777s have been retired to make way for next-gen aircraft including the A350 and the A300-900neo. Delta claims that these aircraft are 20% more fuel-efficient in terms of fuel used per passenger, per mile travelled.

 

 

For technologies that do not yet exist commercially, such as large electric passenger planes and hydrogen passenger planes, the lab will facilitate partnerships aimed at accelerating development. Delta is already partnering with some large aircraft manufacturers, such as Airbus, as well as emerging aircraft innovators like electric plane firm Joby. There will also be partnerships between the private sector and academia.

The strategy for the lab is being spearheaded by Delta’s chief sustainability officer Pam Fletcher. She is being supported by a new council including specialists from across the business, including those working in technical operations, flight operations, fuel, fleet management and customer service.

On collaborating for technology breakthroughs, Fletcher said: “With aviation being a hard-to-decarbonise industry, none of us can do this alone.

“We’re rolling out the welcome mat for disruptors of choice to take advantage of Delta’s global resources to accelerate our path to decarbonization and a fully sustainable travel experience.”

 

Target evolution

Delta committed to becoming a net-zero business by 2050 in 2021, through the UN-backed Race to Zero initiative. It subsequently had emissions targets for 2035 approved by the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) as aligned with ‘well below 2C’. These targets entail cutting direct emissions (Scope 1) plus indirect emissions from jet fuel by 45%, on an intensity basis, against a 2019 baseline.

Delta is hoping to achieve verification under the SBTi’s net-zero standard, which will require it to strengthen its targets with a commitment for a 90% reduction across all scopes by 2050. The SBTi is notably in the process of phasing out ‘well below 2C’ targets through to 2025, with 1.5C targets needed for net-zero standard verification.

Fletcher has stated that, to meet its climate targets, Delta will need to consider different low-carbon solutions across different timelines. A blog post published in September 2022 by Fletcher states that the company is improving fuel efficiency and electrifying ground operations now, while also cutting single-use plastics. In the medium term, its approach is to scale sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production in partnerships across the industry and with governments, to bring down costs. The, in the long-term, hydrogen and electric aircraft could be commercialised.

“We’re optimistic about early-stage companies pushing the boundaries with futurist thinking on aircraft, propulsion and more, and look forward to fostering collaboration with the industry, academia, and start-ups to accelerate the sustainable future of flight,” Fletcher’s blog states.

Airlines in the UK are, by and large, following the Government’s strategy on decarbonisation – the Jet Zero Strategy. The Strategy bets heavily on efficiencies and SAF. Last month, the UK Government provided its latest tranche of funding for SAF developers, focusing on energy-from-waste and fuels created from carbon captured at industrial plants.

 

 

 

 

Source edie

 

Climate change: Temperature analysis shows UN goals ‘within reach’

Posted on by dishanth
Climate change: Temperature analysis shows UN goals ‘within reach’

The Climate Action Tracker group looked at new climate promises from China and other nations, along with the carbon plans of US President-elect Joe Biden.

These commitments would mean the rise in world temperatures could be held to 2.1C by the end of this century.

Previous estimates indicated up to 3C of heating, with disastrous impacts.

But the experts are worried the long-term optimism is not matched by short-term plans to cut CO2.

For more than a decade, researchers from the Climate Action Tracker have kept a close eye on what countries’ collective carbon-cutting pledges mean for our warming world.

After the failed Copenhagen summit in 2009, the group estimated that global temperatures would rise by 3.5C by the end of this century.

 

Source: Climate Action Tracker Source: BBC

 

But the creation in 2015 of the Paris climate agreement, which was designed to avoid dangerous warming of the Earth, made a considerable impact. As a result of the international deal, countries slowly started to switch away from fossil fuels.

In September this year, the group concluded that the world was heading for warming of around 2.7C by 2100.

This figure was still far above the 2C goal contained in the wording of the Paris pact, and nowhere near the more challenging 1.5C target that scientists endorsed as the threshold to destructive warming in 2018.

Their new “optimistic analysis” now suggests a rise of 2.1C by 2100.

 

Xi Jinping remotely addressing the UN on the question of climate change. Source: REUTERS

 

So what’s really changed?

The past three months have seen some key developments.

In September, China’s President Xi Jinping told the UN that his country will reach net zero emissions by 2060, and that its emissions will peak before 2030. According to the CAT researchers, this could reduce warming by 0.2 to 0.3C by the end of the century.

Japan and South Korea have both followed suit, pledging to reach net zero by 2050. South Africa and Canada have also announced their own net zero targets.

The other significant change is the election of Joe Biden in the US.

 

Source: Climate Action Tracker / Source: BBC

 

Tackling climate change is a major part of his agenda. He has promised to bring the US to net zero emissions by 2050. That move would reduce global temperatures by 0.1C by 2100.

“We now have north of 50% of global emissions covered by big countries with a zero emissions by mid-century goal,” said Bill Hare from Climate Analytics, who helped lead the Climate Action Tracker analysis.

“When you add all that up, along with what a whole bunch of other countries are doing, then you move the temperature dial from around 2.7C to really quite close to two degrees.”

“It’s still a fair way off from the Paris Agreement target, but it is a really major development,” he told BBC News.

 

President-elect Joe Biden has selected former US Secretary of State John Kerry to be his climate envoy. Source: REUTERS

 

Potential difficulties

The CAT researchers say they have taken a fairly conservative approach but they readily acknowledge that their optimistic analysis comes with some major caveats.

The biggest problem as they see it, is that the near-term plans to cut carbon by 2030 are just not up to the job.

“Countries have not yet adjusted their short-term actions to be on a pathway towards the long-term target,” said Niklas Höhne, from the NewClimate Institute, who also works on the Climate Action Tracker.

“Long-term targets are easier, they are far away. But short-term actions are happening right now and they affect citizens, they affect voters. And that’s why this is much more difficult,” he told BBC News.

 

Politicians have been under pressure to act on climate change from protestors, including Greta Thunberg. Source: REUTERS

 

The countries that have signed up to the Paris agreement are expected to lodge new carbon-cutting plans for 2030 by the end of this year.

It’s expected that a number will do so, including the UK and the EU.

But there are several countries who are still reluctant to set goals, and many poorer nations are still looking to invest in coal.

“There are countries that still remain bad actors, including Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Australia, Russia, and a few others,” said Bill Hare.

“And we also have a pipeline of coal plants in the region where I’m working now in Asia. It has not collapsed, it has not gone away, so yes, there’s much to be concerned about. And there’s much that can go wrong.”

 

A hydrogen-powered train – the green form of the gas could help decarbonise transport

 

What about the response to Covid-19?

According to observers, the response of countries to the Covid crisis is a huge opportunity to focus their short-term spending on renewable energy and increased decarbonisation.

“The pandemic opened a window to not only get countries to outline their long-term goal, but to actually move onto the right path so that they can actually achieve the long term goal,” said Dr Maisa Rojas, who is the director of the Center for Climate and Resilience Research at the University of Chile in Santiago.

“Are we going to harness that opportunity? My impression is that many, including the EU, are harnessing it.”

 

 

By Matt McGrath Environment correspondent

Source: BBC