Meetings industry has power to influence sustainable fuel use

Meeting and events leaders must influence the conversation around sustainable aviation as companies implement carbon budgets that threaten to hit delegate numbers.

That was the plea from the Events Industry Council’s Mariela Bazan, who was chairing a session on the environmental impact of conference flights at the recent 62nd ICCA Congress in Bangkok.

She said: “One of the things that I often hear in our sector is, ‘we can do things around venues, food choices, waste management, but we can’t do much about aviation.' And I really want us to change our narrative on that. We are the business events industry, we create US$1.6 trillion in GDP. We have to stop thinking about ourselves as not having influence on this conversation, because we absolutely do have influence!"

The all-aviation panel comprised Carlos Mauricio Garcia Arauz, from Qatar Airways Group; Gea Van Beek, from Skyteam; and Bradley Sutherland, from Air Canada. All three outlined the ways in which their organisations were trying to reach net zero by 2050, including the move to Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and the electrification of airline fleets.

Sutherland said Air Canada’s customers and shareholders were demanding a shift to more sustainable aviation, but he was frank about the scale of the challenge ahead.

Airlines had begun to invest in electric aviation, he said, but the challenge was huge and only major manufacturers, Boeing and Airbus included, were seriously exploring its potential.

Even if it were possible to fly a battery-powered commercial airliner, you would need the energy infrastructure to be renewable, otherwise it would negate the emissions savings.

“The amount of energy you need to power up an electric aircraft is huge, so if you’re not doing that in the right jurisdiction, from a renewable source, what does it really matter?”

The shift to sustainable aviation fuel was no less daunting. Arauz said: “We need at least 65% of the total aviation fuel to be covered by sustainable fuel if we are to reach net zero emissions and currently we are at around 1%.

“But we would need two thousand new SAF facilities. The problem is there is no supply and then when you get supply it is not constant. You can get a drop today and then a drop next year.

“And then when you overcome the supply issue, you have the certification issue. How do we know the stuff being produced is sustainable or not? Because there is good SAF and bad SAF.”

The panellists said they welcomed support from the business events sector and said organisers should encourage delegates to choose the most carbon efficient flights, direct if possible, from the most sustainable airlines, travel light to reduce fuel consumption, and offset flights.

Source: AMI