Environmental support
EUROCONTROL puts its environmental expertise at the service of the European Commission (EC), Member States and the aviation community to help measure, monitor and mitigate the impact aviation is having on the environment.
The aviation industry in Europe is increasingly affected by environmentally-driven legislation at the European level. Even the Single European Sky initiative, whose focus is air traffic management (ATM), includes a specific target for reducing aviation’s negative impact on the environment. However, this target can only be met if the aviation community can measure and predict its emissions rates accurately.
In addition, as of 2012, the aviation sector will be incorporated in the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), a legislative instrument designed to encourage market-based allocation of resources to reduce emissions within an overall cap. This also requires means to measure emissions.
Our environmental expertise is being put to profit in the following areas (check tabs for more information):
- regulatory support;
- modelling tools and databases;
- contribution to the SESAR research programme;
- environmental training for the ATM community;
- operational measures to minimise aviation's environmental impact.
EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS)
EUROCONTROL has been working closely with the European Commission (EC) and EU States to support the introduction of the aviation element of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.
Using our expertise, modelling and database capabilities, we provide the EC with:
- information on which the EC bases its annual publication of the list associating aircraft operators with ETS administering States;
- an estimate of the historical aviation emissions for the period 2004-2006, which the EC will take into account when publishing the aviation sector’s emissions cap within the scheme. A number of aircraft operators kindly provided historical fuel burn data to EUROCONTROL on a confidential basis to help us estimate the emissions for the period, and three user associations also kindly provided us with input to a methodology for estimating fuel burn from auxiliary power units.
This work has allowed us to develop a small emitters tool, a simplified fuel consumption estimation tool, that allows aircraft operators to estimate their fuel consumption on a flight by flight basis, and to develop an ETS Support Facility for States’ Competent Authorities, which went live on 15 January 2011.
A support function for aircraft operators is also available from 1 March 2011, namely the ETS Support Facility for Aircraft Operators. Overall, we expect that the facility will save money for both States and users, by reducing the cost of compliance with the legislation.
ICAO Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection
We also support regulation at the global level through our contribution to the work of ICAO’s Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP), which sets the global regulatory standards on environmental issues for our industry. Working closely with the States, European Commission and EASA, we contribute environmental modelling, database, forecasting and operational expertise.
For example, one of our experts is the current co-chair of CAEP Working Group 2, which is dealing in particular with methodological work on how to estimate ATM environmental performance, while we host and maintain, together with the United States’ Federal Aviation Administration the CAEP Common Operations Database of worldwide air traffic movements.
We also support the global noise modelling community working to ECAC and ICAO standards, through hosting and maintaining the Aircraft Noise Performance database, which contains up-to-date noise characteristics for a very wide mix of airframe-engine combinations.
Modelling activities to measure the environmental impact of European aviation
Working through the ICAO and ECAC environmental groups has led us to develop three key applications to model the environmental impact of air traffic movements, covering fuel burn/greenhouse gas emissions, local air quality and noise.
Each of these successfully passed ICAO’s stress tests during 2008-2009 and have thus become part of the standard suite of assessment models used by ICAO's Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP) to assess future regulatory policy options – such as:
- introducing tighter aircraft noise and emissions standards, and
- estimating what impact such measures would have both on the citizen – through reduced environmental impact, and the industry.
These models are:
Advanced Emissions Model (AEM)
Estimates aviation emissions (CO2, H2O, SOx, NOx, HC, CO, Benzene, VOC, TOG) and fuel burn. It analyses flight profile data, on a flight-by-flight basis, for air traffic scenarios of almost any scope - from local studies around airports to global aircraft emissions.
Indeed, this model has already been incorporated in EUROCONTROL’s key airspace simulation tool (SAAM), so that any time an airspace change is modelled within it, the impact on fuel burn and greenhouse gas emissions is automatically calculated.
AEM uses EUROCONTROL’s aircraft performance database (BADA), one of the most widely accepted means of estimating aircraft performance in the industry.
STAPES (System for Airport Noise Exposure Studies) regional noise calculator
Performs multi-airport noise studies. The system supports all types of noise impact assessments in relation to the EC’s and ICAO’s future policy options, as well as any new operational concept designed under the SESAR programme.
Airport Local Air Quality Studies (ALAQS) model
Calculates airport emissions from all sources. It helps to define and measure emissions from various airport sources - runways, taxiways and buildings as well as those from non airport infrastructure such as roads.
Environmental activities within the SESAR work programme
EUROCONTROL is responsible within the SESAR work programme for managing five of the six environmental projects within the Transversal Areas work package - WP16.
Our key focus is on WP16.6.3, which is the SESAR environmental support and co-ordination function, and WP16.3.1, which looks at environmental validation framework within SESAR, and supports WP16.6.3.
Through these work packages, EUROCONTROL will lead work with its SESAR partners to roll out an environmental assessment methodology and toolset within SESAR, so that the programme can track its performance towards meeting its goal of reducing fuel burn (and hence emissions) by 10% per flight by 2020 in comparison with 2005.
Work will start in 2011 on three other environmental work packages covering indicators, external and legislative risks, and the findings of these will also inform WP16.6.3.
Environmental Training for the ATM community
We provide and maintain online and classroom-based training courses on environment issues for ATM professionals, covering aviation in an environmental context, regulatory requirements and operational mitigation measures in particular.
The courses are delivered by our environment and training experts through our Institute of Air Navigation Services in Luxembourg.
Operational Measures to minimise aviation’s environmental impact
Making the European air traffic management (ATM) network more efficient is a key goal of EUROCONTROL, in particular through its network management activities. Whenever improvements to airspace or route efficiency are made, this reduces fuel burn per flight and hence the release of emissions, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2).
Continuous Descent Approach (CDA)
As EUROCONTROL is doing such work all the time, environmental protection is therefore embedded in our operational activities. Nevertheless, there is one specific operational project with a clear environmental focus – Continuous Descent Approach (CDA). CDA was established with IATA, CANSO and ACI EUROPE in order to meet the SESAR IP1 baseline requirement to have CDA widely available throughout Europe.
Indeed, at the 2009 Aviation and Environment Summit, IATA, CANSO, ACI EUROPE and EUROCONTROL launched the Joint European Industry CDA Action Plan with the goal of having CDA available at a minimum of 100 airports by the end of 2013.
Progress has been extremely rapid, since aircraft operators want to see the fuel burn savings that it generates which are, on average about 100kg per flight; whereas airport operators see the benefit of reduced noise at airports located 15-40km from the airport, and of course less fuel burn means reduced emissions: on average over 300kg of CO2 per flight.
The four organisations, together with ERA, reported on progress at the 2010 Aviation and Environment Summit, launching the CDA interactive implementation map as a simple means of presenting how well the programme is moving towards its ultimate goal. By the end of 2010, operational stakeholders at almost 100 airports had committed to implement CDA.
Access to the map is handled through our extranet login. Once you have registered through this, forward your details to cda@eurocontrol.int to be granted access.
Collaborative Environmental Management (CEM)
EUROCONTROL is also working with operational stakeholders at airports to encourage the adoption of Collaborative Environmental Management (CEM), which is also part of the SESAR IP1 baseline.
CEM is a process through which the stakeholders can tackle, collectively, the joint issues that they face environmentally, particularly where aircraft operations are involved. It is unlikely that a single operational stakeholder can introduce an environmental improvement without at least the two others being involved or at the very least aware.
Building, often, on existing collaborative arrangements, CEM provides a means through which environmental issues can be dealt with strategically at airports so that commonly agreed solutions of interest to local regulators and communities can be proposed.