The airline industry is working on cleaner fuel — but how quickly can it decarbonize flying? | 24CA News

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April 22 is Earth Day. But as a What on Earth? reader, you recognize we have fun Earth Day all yr lengthy.

This week:

• The airline business is engaged on cleaner gas — however how rapidly can it decarbonize flying?
• 2022 was a scorching yr for warmth pumps
• Across Canada, ‘local weather champions’ are taking motion in their very own communities

The airline business is engaged on cleaner gas — however how rapidly can it decarbonize flying?

Canadians like to journey, however we all know that each flight produces CO2 emissions that contribute to local weather change. 

While the airline business at present contributes solely 2.5 per cent of CO2 emissions, there’s concern that it might improve considerably by the top of the century. The business is methods to attain web zero emissions by 2050, and one main pathway is to discover the usage of greener gas. Here’s a have a look at what which means, and what the challenges are.

What is sustainable aviation gas?

Sustainable aviation gas (SAF) is gas derived from agricultural or artificial supplies (similar to crops or animal fat) and recycled waste merchandise (similar to cooking oils) that may produce kerosene in jet engines. Simply put, it is cleaner gas.

It is used as a “drop-in” additive to conventional fuels to be able to minimize CO2 emissions.

While there have been experiments with electrifying smaller planes, the batteries are too giant for industrial planes, the place each ounce of weight issues. This is why SAF is seen as very important in decreasing aviation CO2 emissions.

Since SAF was first utilized in industrial aviation in 2011, an increasing number of airports and airways world wide have been integrating the cleaner gas. The Trudeau International Airport in Montreal started offering SAF in 2016, whereas Pearson International Airport in Toronto started offering it in 2021. To date, globally, there have been greater than 450,000 flights which have used one of these gas.

Even so, in response to a 2021 working paper by the International Council on Clean Transportation, SAF manufacturing accounts for lower than 0.05 per cent of worldwide jet gas demand.

What are some challenges?

“The biggest criteria [for SAFs] … is something called freeze point, which is the temperature at which molecules start to solidify,” stated David Bressler, a professor on the University of Alberta’s college of agricultural, life and environmental sciences.

Typically, gas-turbine airplanes use fuels known as Jet-A or Jet-A1, that are particular varieties developed for the colder temperatures discovered at larger altitudes. Jet-A gas has a freeze level of –40 C, whereas Jet-A1 has a freeze level of –47 C. Jet-B gas has a a lot colder freeze level of –60 C. (There are different kinds of gas, however these are the most typical.) 

Replacing conventional kerosene gas with SAFs means guaranteeing that the gas can have comparable freeze factors. But there are different wide-ranging challenges, says Jim Harris, a associate on the consultancy Bain & Company who focuses on aerospace.

One is getting SAF as much as an industrial scale, which Harris says requires a “real learning curve.” He famous that traditionally, ramping up comparable chemical processes has taken a number of generations to get it proper.

Then there’s the priority over inconsistencies in waste merchandise — similar to corn stover — which Harris stated makes it harder to run at an industrial scale. Another consideration is utilizing agricultural land for jet gas moderately than meals. And lastly, will the patron be prepared to pay for it?

Harris stated that in the intervening time, the price of SAF is not prohibitive, however that is as a result of the quantity dropped into common gas is only a small fraction.

“But when you start to talk about 40 per cent, 50 per cent, 60 per cent of fuel replacement, that becomes a big deal very quickly,” Harris stated. “Passengers are very price elastic, and small changes in price equal big changes of demand. And so we are worried that the industry can’t simply absorb significantly higher fuel costs and still make travel affordable.”

Will the airline business attain web zero?

Last yr, the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization agreed to a “long-term global aspirational goal” of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Transitioning to SAF is a giant a part of that.

Harris says that whereas the dedication is shared by the International Air Transport Association, and even corporations like Boeing and Airbus, he feels the 2050 goal is unlikely to be met.

“The pace of technology evolution … just makes that really hard in this timeframe. Even if you could introduce fully green propulsion in the early 2040s, it won’t make up a significant portion of the fleet by 2050 to really matter.”

He believes decreasing the frequency of air journey, together with the event of SAF, could also be a greater technique to hit the goal sooner.

“We think a more realistic approach here is that aviation needs to show they’re making real progress, they need to show that there’s a path.”

— Nicole Mortillaro

Reader suggestions

Richard Killey:

“Great article about how restoring wetlands can save money. For years, I have been noticing construction in certain areas and commenting to my friends that it’s a bad idea. Nature does not forget. Especially water tables, etc. I hope studies like the one mentioned in the article will help communities all over the country deal differently with nature when we humans want something more convenient.”

Old problems with What on Earth? are proper right here. 

24CA News has a devoted local weather web page, which may be discovered right here.

Also, take a look at our radio present and podcast. This week, we head to Prince Edward Island, the place a wall is separating greater than land and sea. It’s making a gulf between residents and the federal government that promised to guard the shorelines within the face of local weather change. What On Earth airs on Sundays at 11 a.m. ET, 11:30 a.m. in Newfoundland and Labrador. Subscribe in your favorite podcast app or hear it ondemand at CBC Listen.

***And watch the CBC video collection Planet Wonder that includes our colleague Johanna Wagstaffe right here. 

The Big Picture: 2022 was a scorching yr for warmth pumps

In some ways, it looks as if 2022 was the yr that warmth pumps reached essential mass, a minimum of within the standard creativeness. As the graphic beneath exhibits, warmth pump gross sales grew by greater than 10 per cent worldwide — and almost 50 per cent in Europe — in response to the International Energy Agency. 

Heat pumps use electrical energy to switch warmth out and in of buildings, successfully fulfilling the function of each a furnace and an air conditioner. Increased curiosity within the know-how is essentially right down to a rising need to scale back fossil gas use in residential and business heating. The giant soar in warmth pump deployment in Europe may be defined by beneficiant authorities subsidies (notably in France, Germany and Italy), however Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 can be a significant factor. It compelled many nations to rethink their reliance on Russian pure fuel, and in March 2022, the European Commission stated it could super-charge the warmth pump rollout, aiming to double annual installations within the EU over the following 5 years.

The numbers in Canada aren’t as spectacular — warmth pumps solely comprise six per cent of residential heating on this nation. But the numbers are larger within the Maritimes (in New Brunswick, it is 32 per cent), and the federal authorities now supplies subsidy packages to assist individuals make the swap.

Hot and bothered: Provocative concepts from across the internet

Across Canada, ‘local weather champions’ are taking motion in their very own communities

Climate change can really feel like an not possible drawback, with complicated options out of attain for many of us. But when the What On Earth radio present requested listeners to appoint local weather champions of their communities, there was a flood of responses. 

From coast to coast, persons are striving to make the world a greater place with on-the-ground work of their communities. Listeners nominated their companions, members of the family, colleagues and neighbours for an astonishing number of local weather motion. 

Here are a couple of individuals discovering methods to make a distinction.

Sunil Singal (photograph above) in Vancouver is president of the grassroots, volunteer-led advocacy group Force of Nature Alliance, which was a part of the marketing campaign that saved Burnaby’s Fraser Foreshore Park from metropolis council’s plan to construct an natural waste facility on the wetland. Singal spends his evenings on behind-the-scenes work, organizing conferences and campaigns and reaching out to elected officers. 

“We’re in a climate emergency, so every chance I have, I try to spend as much time as I can working on these things,” he advised What On Earth host Laura Lynch. “Most elected officials are happy to chat about what your concerns are and how they can address them.”

A Williams Lake, B.C.-based staff, together with songwriter and facilitator Shannon O’Donovan and the younger singers and songwriters within the Williams Lake Climate Change Youth Group, had been nominated for his or her music We Can Think It Out, which provides voice to the complicated feelings younger individuals really feel about local weather change.

“I really thought that our song was quite inspiring and I really wanted to be part of something that would help people and keep climate change from destroying our lands,” stated 11-year-old singer Raven Shepherd. 

Justice Morningstar in Ottawa is the supervisor of the 20/20 Catalysts program at Indigenous Clean Energy, a coaching program that helps contributors transfer clear vitality initiatives ahead of their house communities. 

“‘It’s life-changing’ is one of the main things I’ve heard from all our alumni — that going through the 20/20 Catalysts program has changed their lives completely,” she stated. “It shifted their mindset and they are able to drive their projects forward in ways that they couldn’t even imagine before the program.”

Nina Newington, from Mount Hanley, N.S., is an activist who’s been arrested for her peaceable efforts to guard old-growth forests from logging.

“I think if there’s a way through the climate and biodiversity crisis, it’s actually going to take us to a better society,” she stated. “It’s going to take us to a better way of being with each other and a less colonial mindset.”

Chris Taggart in Ottawa created the Slack group Electrify 613 and the brand new web site electrific.co to assist individuals share details about learn how to make their properties extra climate-friendly. 

“Having kids and then seeing them grow and then seeing the future they’re set up to inherit and knowing that we have choices and changes that we can make now to alter that future really inspired me to take some initiative and … try to do something to move things forward,” he stated. 

Claire Kraatz in Calgary is the co-lead of Alberta’s chapter of the local weather advocacy group For Our Kids and was nominated as a champion for her work on the Alberta marketing campaign to affect faculty buses. 

“I see myself as a very concerned parent who really just wants to make a small difference and try and push the needle or push that ball up the hill so that once it gets to the top, maybe we can start to see that momentum down the hill,” she stated. 

Bruno Hoffman splits his time between his South Surrey house and his boat in Pender Harbour, B.C., and was impressed by his love of the ocean to create The Green Boater, a web-based useful resource for seafarers that features details about learn how to scale back emissions at sea — from electrical boats to cleaner-burning engines. 

“My little part of the world is talking to boaters and seeing if we can just help them do one thing, just change one little thing times a million, and maybe we can have an impact on the ocean,” he stated.

Andrew Mills from Calgary is the president of the Eco-Solar Home Tour Society of Alberta, which presents free excursions of energy-efficient properties across the province. 

“It’s about changing perceptions,” he stated. “Even in a province like Alberta, where everybody says, ‘Oh, gas is the only way to heat,’ you can actually get people looking at renewables, get people looking at their carbon footprint and … going down a path that is a little bit more sustainable.”

— Rachel Sanders

Do you recognize a local weather champion in your neighborhood? You can ship a nomination anytime to earth@cbc.ca.

Stay in contact!

Are there points you need us to cowl? Questions you need answered? Do you simply need to share a sort phrase? We’d love to listen to from you. Email us at whatonearth@cbc.ca.

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Editor: Andre Mayer | Logo design: Sködt McNalty