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Latest news on EUROCONTROL’s work on sustainability

17 November 2022

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Environmental Impact Assessment Forum 2022

EUROCONTROL participates in ICAO’s 41^st Assembly and contributes to the organisation’s Environmental Report

EUROCONTROL participated in the 41^st ICAO Assembly as part of "Team Europe" - together with representatives from the European Commission, the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC), the European Union Aviation Safety Agency and the SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking – contributing to the work on strategic subjects for Europe and coordinating their responses to papers from other States.

EUROCONTROL provided significant support and drafting effort on a number of topics, including GNSS resilience, Higher Airspace Operations and Sustainability. EUROCONTROL's contribution on sustainability can be found in ICAO's 2022 Environmental Report, which assesses progress made over the last three years across key areas of ICAO's environmental protection activities.

Topics include "Economic Fuel Tankering", "Impacts of COVID-19 on CORSIA implementation", "Climate Change Risk Assessment, Vulnerabilities, and Adaptation Measures" and a summary of all the work delivered by ICAO's Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP) Working Group 2 on Airports and Operations.

The EUROCONTROL Aviation Sustainability Unit is organising its first EUROCONTROL Environmental Impact Assessment Forum which will start on 8 December at 12:00 and finish on 9 December at 12:00. The forum will showcase EUROCONTROL’s tools for measuring aviation’s environmental impact and is targeted at aviation community members currently using the environmental impact assessment tools or planning to do so in the near future.

Graphic of an airplane flying over a lake, leaving a trail in its wake

Preparing the aviation ecosystem for the entry into service of hydrogen and electric aircraft is the goal of the Alliance for Zero-Emission Aviation (AZEA), which held its first General Assembly in November at EUROCONTROL.

EUROCONTROL joined earlier this year and will contribute its unique air traffic data and state-of-the-art modelling capability to support the integration of zero-emission aircraft into the European network. This will include forecasts to supporting the definition of rollout scenarios, helping identify operational and financial incentives for flights operated by such aircraft, as well as assessing fuelling requirements and green energy needs at the network level.

Eamnonn Brennan and Thierry Breton at AZEA general assembly 2022

EUROCONTROL will contribute its unique air traffic data and state-of-the-art modelling capability to support the integration of zero-emission aircraft into the European network. This will include forecasts to supporting the definition of rollout scenarios, helping identify operational and financial incentives for flights operated by such aircraft, as well as assessing fuelling requirements and green energy needs at the network level.