Green matters at Paris Air Show
Print Edition
WITH air passenger numbers set to double to 6 billion annually by 2030, the world’s premier air show in Paris will next week focus on green issues even as the aircraft sales war remains center stage.
The Paris Air Show brings together some 315,000 visitors and 2,260 exhibitors from 47 countries and regions, with much of the attention focused on which big manufacturers, particularly Airbus and Boeing, will land the most orders.
But the event happens to be hosted in the same Le Bourget venue outside Paris that will welcome world leaders later this year as they try to hash out a global deal to curb greenhouse emissions.
So it is little surprise that this year’s air show, running from Monday to June 21, will put a special focus on environmental issues and innovations.
Top industry officials, government ministers and environmental experts will meet on Thursday to discuss air travel’s impact on the climate, and there will be a weeklong exhibition on the subject called “The Sky of Tomorrow.”
“Building planes that emit less and less CO2 remains a leading challenge for the aeronautic industry,” said Marwan Lahoud, president of GIFAS and one of the event’s organizers.
“The Paris Air Show will be the chance to see the results and innovations achieved by manufacturers direct from the source,” he added.
Attendees will include Nobel peace prize co-laureate Philippe Ciais of France’s Climate and Environmental Sciences Laboratory, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, and a host of top air industry honchos.
The air industry’s contribution to climate change is complex and controversial.
Although planes are thought to be responsible for only around 2 percent of global greenhouse emissions, some researchers have found that the different types of gases released and their high altitude may have more powerful short-term effects.
The industry’s global body, the International Air Transport Association, has set a target of being carbon neutral by 2020 and halving CO2 emissions by 2050, primarily through wider use of cleaner fuels.
But a European Union attempt to impose a tax on the most polluting airlines collapsed in 2012 in the face of opposition from Chinese, Indian and American companies.
Despite that, many firms are seeking to cash in on the trend for greener technologies.
Airbus will show off its prototype, all-electric plane, the E-Fan, at next week’s air show.
And EGTS International will demonstrate its “Green Taxiing” system that allows planes to taxi on the ground without the main engines, using a back-up power unit to drive motors on the wheels.
For the general public, all eyes will be on the sky with flying displays by around 40 aircraft each day, including fighter jets such as France’s Rafale, Pakistan’s new JF-17 Thunder and Ukraine’s Antonov 178.
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