Aviation industry - mitigating climate change impacts through technology and policy

About 15,000 aircraft service nearly 10,000 airports and operate over routes approximately 15 million km in total length. More the 2.2 billion passengers flew on the world's airlines for vacation and business travel, and well in excess of a third of the value of the worlds manufactured exports were transported by air. Further, aviation industry generates 32 million jobs worldwide and contributes nearly 8% to world gross domestic product. It goes without saying that air transportation has a big economic footprint. However, the aviation industry is not immune to the impact it has on climate change. As the aviation skies continue to crowd so does the impact of CO2 emissions. This paper reviews the challenges facing the aviation industry and what is it doing about reducing its environmental footprint. The paper concludes that aviation industry needs to look past their traditional business model and move to a model that allows them to operate in a new global business environment which puts emphasis on environmental alignment of business goals. In the interim, the aviation industry continues to explore the issues related to alternative fuels, more efficient engine technology, better traffic management and policy mechanisms (such as emissions trading and carbon offsets) with some degree of success. The paper strongly recommends the involvement of governments in establishing ground rules to help global aviation industry to mitigate climate change risks.