Speaker Q&As
In the run-up to our ESG event on 29 March, we’ve caught up with a few of our superstar speakers to grant them three wishes from the ESG genie – take a look below to see what our speakers had to say! Please note, that these are personal views and not those of any company they may represent.
1) What aviation sustainability metric do you wish was universally available and reported? RTK
2) Congratulations, you can now accelerate technological development by ten years - what aviation-related technology do you choose? Power to Liquid and CCUS (I’d even be happy to see a role for small nuclear here being a ‘sustainable’ source of power for producing ‘pink’ hydrogen and CCUS)
3) You can convince all global regulators to do one thing - what is it? Ditch CORSIA and implement a scheme that is aligned with IATA’s Fly Net Zero and the Paris Accord.
1) What aviation sustainability metric do you wish was universally available and reported? GHG emissions including non-CO2 effects
2) Congratulations, you can now accelerate technological development by ten years - what aviation-related technology do you choose? The ability to store energy (whether that’s hydrogen or electricity), the production pathways we pursue need base load energy supply. Ability to store intermittent renewable energy in an affordable and efficient manner is very important for the success of PtL uptake.
3) You can convince all global regulators to do one thing - what is it? Agreement on a global blending requirement (like the EU mandate), creating a global level playing field. Also require airlines to report on their welll to wake Scope 3 emissions (not currently happening).
1) What aviation sustainability metric do you wish was universally available and reported? An agreed metric to measure CO2 from aircraft in as reasonable and somewhat simplified way to enable you not to have to do metrics for each and every route, and which would include CO2 equivalents from emissions of other GHG, plus high-altitude emission effects. The latter would probably be a bit early to implement, but could come later.
2) Congratulations, you can now accelerate technological development by ten years - what aviation-related technology do you choose? Energy density of batteries
3) You can convince all global regulators to do one thing - what is it? Agree on a global carbon credit system that will have a reasonable impact and improvement incentive over time. That would mean that CO2 emissions would gradually cost more and more but implemented over time so that there would be a sensible timeline to improve, but at the same time tight enough to provide real financial benefits for those who are investing in sustainable tools and thus are reducing their emissions.
1) What aviation sustainability metric do you wish was universally available and reported? Metrics for carbon markets where offsets for certain schemes entirely rely on methodologies, mechanisms and results contained in the Paris agreement whilst others add their own commercial requirements and mechanisms over and above those contained in the Paris agreement.
2) Congratulations, you can now accelerate technological development by ten years - what aviation-related technology do you choose? DACC (Direct Air Carbon Capture) – once the technology behind this is super-efficient and low cost then this can be applied everywhere globally to provide the input carbon for SAF production at scale (also then at low cost assuming Green Hydrogen scaling at low-cost forms part of the equation). Imagine a world where SAF can be produced in abundance at point of demand (no to little transport costs which currently negatively impacts price assumptions today) using abundant modular small DACC and Hydrogen producing plants next to each other. In reality we are not far off this dream already today
3) You can convince all global regulators to do one thing - what is it? Define ONE non-divergent regulatory pathway/playbook to all market participants for a SINGLE global standard applied for SAF blending mandates