Climate change and Aviation
by Adam Durant (Former Clare CRA)

Aviation is emerging from COVID-19 with a sharpened focus on sustainability, with many projects focused on sustainable aviation fuels, new aircraft design and propulsion system, and supply chains. Yet the clouds formed by aircraft at cruise altitudes, or contrails, account for 60% of aviation's climate impact, almost double that of direct engine emissions. Until recently, scientific and technical challenges made contrail prevention difficult or impossible. Lately, however, developments in atmospheric science and cloud-based high-performance-computing have enabled high-resolution contrail forecasting, which in turn enables smarter flight planning to prevent the climate impact.

Dr Adam Durant, CEO of Cambridge-based SATAVIA, will explore how his team are tackling the contrail challenge with cutting-edge climate science, revolutionary atmospheric modelling, innovative flight-planning, and ground-breaking carbon equivalent offsetting. Working closely with leading technological and aerospace players, SATAVIA is leading the way to enable aviation reduce its climate impact.