Sustainability by Air and Sea

Increasingly in today’s climate, decarbonisation is a vital goal across various industries. Most industries are affected by global regulations and schemes related to reducing emissions, such as the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi). Significant emissions reduction goals pose a substantial challenge to industries fundamental to a society’s infrastructure and where demand continually grows, such as aviation and shipping.

Significant emissions reduction goals pose a substantial challenge to industries that are fundamental to a society’s infrastructure and where demand continually grows, such as aviation and shipping.

Decarbonisation in Aviation & Shipping

Aviation and shipping face strict emissions reduction targets by 2050 and will need to overcome similar challenges to achieve them. In the UK, collaboration with the ICAO and the International Maritime Organization is vital to decarbonise these industries.

The UK Jet Zero strategy sets out a framework for reaching net zero aviation emissions by 2050, with a vision to achieve net zero with UK domestic aviation by 2040 ^[3].

Balancing operational demands and the climate crisis is a concern across the entire aviation industry, particularly where meeting increasing demand and decreasing emissions seems an impossible contradiction. Growing demand for aviation coupled with pressure to reduce emissions presents a delicate dilemma: How can we simultaneously grow and reduce?

Growing demand for aviation coupled with pressure to reduce emissions presents a delicate dilemma: How can we simultaneously grow and reduce?

The shipping industry faces a similar challenge, with the IMO predicting that “shipping emissions could grow by between 50 to 250% by 2050.” The industry is also trying to achieve the goals of banning fossil fuels from 2035 and halving total annual greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 (compared to 2008) ^[4].

The shipping industry is aiming to ban fossil fuel use from 2035.

Fuel-optimised routing is one strategy in aviation that can help to reduce emissions and improve efficiency today. In shipping, optimising routes to consider weather and congestion can save up to 5% of emissions ^[5]. Both industries are making gains in route optimisation through just in time arrivals and speed control:

Shipping and aviation both share a problem of queueing on arrival, contributing to excess emissions:

• Ships spend up to six per cent of their operating lives at anchor while waiting for berth, running their auxiliary engines the whole time and generating emissions ^[7].
• By comparison, arrivals at the top 30 European airports spend on average three additional minutes airborne, waiting for a runway to become available, and two minutes on the ground waiting for a stand ^[6].

In aviation, technology tools such as that allow airports to easily adjust schedules on the day of operations or implement targeted times of arrival can enable further efficiencies.

Solutions, Collaboration and Knowledge-Sharing Opportunities

Shared challenges bring opportunities for joint innovation, where ideas, experience, and learnings from within and across industries can bring improvements. For aviation and shipping, these opportunities include regulatory approval for new technologies, the supply and management of low-carbon fuels, and optimisations in route planning and traffic flow.

Significant long-term emissions reductions in both aviation and shipping are expected to come from the scaling up of zero- and low-carbon fuels, as well as technology advancements that both identify and measure hotspots and provide new capabilities that support implementation of impactful sustainability strategies.

Clear, timely, and accurate data is critical for identifying and addressing inefficiencies, and transparency is crucial for effective collaboration amongst stakeholders. Industry-specific tools and technologies, such as Green Aviation Insights (GAIN) for ANSPs and the Maersk Emissions Dashboard for the shipping industry, play important roles in businesses’ environmental strategies.

Aviation: NATS Green Aviation Insights (GAIN)

GAIN is a cutting-edge, industry first not-for-profit initiative from NATS. An intelligent, data-driven sustainability tool, it helps ANSPs monitor and improve ongoing environmental performance.

GAIN provides insights to enable ANSPs to understand inefficiencies and deliver improvements.

The GAIN portal delivers post-operation insights to enable ANSPs to interpret data, highlight inefficiencies, and deliver improvements. Some of the tool’s core features and functionality – soon to be trialled by several ANSPs – include hotspot detection, trend tracking, reporting, and benchmarking.

More than just a tool, GAIN is envisioned as a global research community and post-operation insights portal for ANSPs to monitor and enhance ongoing environmental performance.

Almost every commercial flight in the world is under the watch of an ANSP and with initiatives such as GAIN and CANSO GreenATM, we can ensure each of those is flying the most efficient and environmentally friendly route and trajectory possible. Collaboration and transparency can amplify these improvements.

Guy Adams, Managing Director NATS Services

Shipping: Maersk Emissions Dashboard

For the shipping industry, Maersk’s Emissions Dashboard digital solution allows enhanced carbon footprint analysis across all carriers and transport modes. The tool collects data from different sources into one dashboard for emissions reporting and optimisation intelligence. ^[10]

“Significant long-term emissions reductions in both aviation and shipping are expected to come from the scaling up of zero- and low-carbon fuels, as well as technology advancements that both identify and measure hotspots and provide new capabilities that support implementation of impactful sustainability strategies.”

Conclusion

In the urgent fight against climate change, there exist moral, legal, and financial incentives for all industries to find ways to reduce emissions and enhance their environmental strategies.

Aviation and shipping face shared challenges in simultaneously reducing carbon emissions and dealing with increased demand in growing industries.

Collaboration, transparency, and data sharing support the aviation industry, and beyond, in reducing carbon emissions on the path to net zero by 2050.

References

1. https://www.iea.org/energy-system/transport/aviation#tracking
2. https://sciencebasedtargets.org/resources/files/SBTi-Maritime-Guidance.pdf
3. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/610d63ffe90e0706d92fa282/decarbonising-transport-a-better-greener-britain.pdf
4. https://www.man-es.com/ahoy2050
5. https://greenvoyage2050.imo.org/just-in-time-arrivals/
6. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/371199346_Reducing_CO2_emissions_of_arrivals_by_acting_on_departure_times_-_A_perspective_for_30_European_airports
7. https://maritime-executive.com/article/study-just-in-time-arrival-could-improve-fuel-efficiency-10-25-percent
8. https://report.aiazero.org/
9. https://greenvoyage2050.imo.org/technology/weather-routing/
10. https://www.maersk.com/digital-solutions/emissions-dashboard