the “Toulouse declaration” approved by 40 States and industrialists
This is the culmination of this Aviation Summit in Toulouse led by Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, the Minister Delegate for Transport and his European and international counterparts under the French presidency of the European Union.
In the presence of major manufacturers in the sector such as Airbus, Dassault, Safran or Thalès, but also representatives of airports and airlines, this “Toulouse declaration” signed on February 4 calls on all partners around the world to work together with a view to next assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) which will consider this subject at the end of September. This call is symbolic, it has no nothing binding.
Most non-signatory countries
Outside the EU, only 15 countries have signed this text including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Morocco and Georgia. Most of these entities had already supported the principle of carbon neutrality in 2050. But some big emitters like Russia and China have set the deadline for 2060. Other giants like India, Middle Eastern countries or Brazil remains to be convinced of the merits of this approach
Signatories include the use of sustainable aviation fuels, carbon pricing and financial incentives for this transition. But he is not not mentioned in this air traffic limitation objective statement what NGOs like Greenpeace who also denounce demand”immature technologies“.
The airline sector currently represents nearly 3% of global CO2 emissions. Around 4.5 billion people traveled by air in 2019, before the health crisis that dropped that level to 2.3 billion in 2021.
In a joint press release, Airbus, Air France-KLM, ATR, Dassault Aviation, Groupe ADP, Safran and Thalès say they support the Toulouse Declaration. They promise they will continue to ” invest in the maturation, development and implementation of decarbonization technologies“. These are mainly new generation engines (hybrid or electric) and sustainable aviation fuels (SAF).