Finlay and George both attended the Sustainable Skies World Summit last week at Farnborough Airport. The summit showcases many of the innovators in future flight technology, so-called Sustainable Aviation Fuel, experts in non-CO2 emissions and contrails, and more. We have been in previous years and even had a stall. This year, sadly, we were not permitted to have a stall unless we were able to pay the not insignificant fee.
Innovation
We spoke to a number of really interesting innovators in future flight technology, namely Evolito, contrails.org, AeroDelft.
Our presentation
We presented our Safe Landing work, our community work, Think Tank and Workers’ Assembly concept, on the “Inspire” stage as the conference came to a close. We were last on stage so disappointingly many people had left the summit by then. The small audience was, however, very engaged. We had a new member join our community and linked up with a journalist from Aerospace Global News.
Smaller than previous years
The summit was smaller than previous years, with much less space for exhibitors and stalls. The focus was primarily on the main stage. We don’t know if that is because the summit received less funding than previous years. Perhaps it was because there is less of a focus in the industry on decarbonisation, with the likes of Airbus’s ZEROe project being postponed for a number of years and EcoJet going into liquidation. It may just have been a different format this year to focus more on the panel presentations.
Heavily curated
The panels throughout the two days were fairly interesting, but the Q&As after each panel were very curated. Audience members could ask questions on an app from which the panel facilitator could select questions to ask. Sadly, many of our very reasonable and pertinent questions on some of the elephants in the room were not asked. The answers we did get were pretty uninspiring with panel members congratulating themselves on airline efficiencies being worked on before sustainability became a more pressing topic.
The elephant in the room
Despite there being many panels and presentations, there were a few elephants in the room that didn’t get any discussion. One of those is the urgency of the climate crisis and the scale of change needed to transform our industry. Another topic conspicuous in its absence was demand management and taxation. We don’t expect everyone to agree on those topics, but to not address them at all, is a dereliction of duty and makes the whole summit feel very unserious. The final elephant in the room (or on the runway) were the private jets that we could all see out of the centre’s window taking off from Farnborough’s runway. There was no mention of the the rampant inequality represented by private jets and the threat to the climate and aviation workers’ jobs posed by their disproportionately high emissions.
Where were all the aviation workers?
One thing that we always notice is that there are so few aviation workers in the room. Yet, they are a huge stakeholder in the future of industry and how it decarbonises. We have a huge opportunity to kickstart innovation and make the UK into a zero carbon flight world leader if we start taking the climate crisis seriously, putting limits on carbon emissions, taxing aviation fairly and investing in the technology of the future. This is where Safe Landing comes in. We exist to connect and empower aviation workers through Workers’ Assemblies, Climate Fresks, Listening Circles and producing bold and innovative policy proposals.
Get involved
Are you an aviation worker or enthusiast? Join our community and get involved. Sign up to our email newsletter, join our WhatsApp community and support our work by setting up a regular or one-off donation. Email info@safe-landing.org for more information.