To represent an industry that has a large cross section of interests, differing levels of capability and a collective desire to provide better service and increased accountability for its cost and provision, demands that CANSO, especially through the work programmes move ahead together and most importantly - in the same direction.
Imagine 2010 set the work programme on a mission: To seek out the ANSP issues; define a method and structure to operate; develop policy and guidance material; promote best practise; and to communicate - globally. Under the mantra of “The Global Voice of ATM” – the Workgroups, and indeed CANSO as an organisation, began to clear the proverbial vocal chords and a hum out a tune. As the work programmes grew and as the organisation began to rally, the voice began to get louder.
What Imagine 2010 has done is bring confidence to CANSO, confidence in representing the interests of the industry and boldness to provide leadership for future change.
The Environment Workgroup needs to rise to this challenge. The deliberate focus of the Operations Standing Committee to strive for operational improvement requires that the all the workprogrammes support this. For the Environment Workgroup this will require a deliberate shift, a deliberate focus on operational capability that will bring an environmental benefit. The Group needs to focus on fuel burn, on reduction to fuel burn and to continue to work on ways to promote initiatives, support the measurement of, and strive to reduce the affect on the environment.
While aviation is only a small portion of the total impact on climate change, it is growing – rapidly. An example of this is China, where the aviation industry has grown rapidly over the last 10 years. The aircraft fleet increased from 480 to 1,400 within a decade, while the domestic market grew 3.5 times over the same period from 1.6 million seats a week to 5.7 million seats per week. International seats also grew from half a million weekly seats to 1.4 million within the decade. The challenge for aviation is to continue to grow, without increasing our impact on the environment.
With every aircraft added to an already congested and often structurally limited system, the challenge is great. The role of the Environment workgroup is to discover where these challenges are being taken on – globally. The group needs to study and promote best practise, encourage ANSP to continue to accurately measure its performance and to focus change in areas that are proven to reduce the affect on the environment.
While this deliberate change is necessary to support CANSO and the “Transforming global ATM performance” - we cannot ignore the role that environmental cultural change has on an ANSP. I have been challenged this last month in seeing the impact that one ANSP has had on enforcing a top-down environmental mandate on the senior leadership of the organisation. Cultural change in an organisation can only work if it flows from the top down, the impact on the whole organisation in raising the consciousness of every member will flow on to the operational decisions that our Air Traffic Controllers make. It is very hard for any ATC to understand the pressure on their individual role to reduce the affect on the environment, if the whole organisation is not committed to changing their behaviour. This important concept needs to be captured by the Environment workgroup – as the impact goes well beyond just ATM footprint but will reduce our overall global impact.
The other challenge I have witnessed is the role of target setting within an organisation. While targets are often local, specific and developed within the framework of the organisation, they set a clear path for change. CANSO’s role may not be to set targets on items such as noise or local air quality, but a target to reduce our overall impact on the environment, as per the
CANSO 2050 Aspirational Goals.
Other industry goals such as being lead by IATA include:
- Collective target to improve CO2 efficiency by an average of 1.5% per annum through 2020 on the basis of CO2 emissions per revenue tonne kilometre (RTK);
- Mid-term target to stabilize net CO2 emissions from aviation from 2020 onward (carbon-neutral growth); and
- Long-term aspirational goal to reduce aviation net carbon
emissions by 50% in 2050, compared to 2005.
To achieve CANSO ‘s 2050 goals or any other industry targets, the Environment Workgroup has global experts from ANSP members and industry members. The role of industry and the partnership of CANSO with industry can increase the momentum for change. Technology is a major portion of this change, as identified by SESAR and Nextgen, but equally and with inherently more risk is the transition of people and the development of procedures. CANSO through the flexibility and informality of the work groups, its wide ranging membership and commitment by our industry members can have a significant impact in the future evolution of ATM.
The role of the Environment Workgroup in the Imagine 2010 maturing of CANSO is evident. The future role that the group has is equally as evident, but needs to become strategic, more collaborative and will challenge us to look at new ways to work and grow. This discussion has commenced and over the next few months, we will begin to define the role that we have in continuing to reduce our impact on the environment.