Slowly starting to get on the Denmark local time zone as it is 6hours ahead of EST in Canada. The other delegates in my flat and I were kind of tired but we were running on caffeine and pure excitement as we were about to attend some very interesting presentations and activities today. We had our morning meeting with the other IFLRY delegates at 9:15am to review our plan for the day.
My fist presentation I chose to attend was called “Greening U.S. aviation: The Roadmap to Reducing Greenhouse Gases” presented by US delegates. The reason I chose this 2 hour presentation was because being a regional airline pilot in Canada I wanted to further my understanding of how my own air transport industry will fly into the future on a “greener flight”. My passion and for some obvious reasons is in aircraft fuel technology. The reason aircraft are not environmentally friendly is because like every single current day combustion process, pollutants are emitted. Now the air transport industry has improved mind boggling %’s in both effiency, performance and reliability. In the past 40 years alone common day jets have improved over 70% in efficiency through an increase in engine and aerodynamic improvements. Now these are impressive numbers in a short span of only 40 years however it does not stop there. Now talk and action of biofuel is literally in the air. Did you know that in February of 2008 Virgin Atlantic Airlines flew a Boeing 747 from London to Amsterdam on 20% biofuel. This is amazing because it shows that biofuel can work in daily operations and perform to the strict aviation fuel spec’s for safety.
After a short lunch break and a brief IFLRY rendezvous we were off again for the afternoon. The second presentation I chose to attend was called “ The contribution of biofuels to climate change mitigation” presented by Brazilian Delegates. It was interesting because the US secretary for the environment, Lisa Jackson started of the presentation discussing how the US is planning on biofuel.
The US currently as we were informed only allows currently up to 10% to be used in normal gasoline on the road. They are waiting for a study to come out later this year to see how feasible it would be to allow a higher % of biofuel to be put in normal gasoline as an alternative option. As impressed as I was that we can see big international players such as the US moving towards a biofuel future, the transition period as currently laid out appears to be slow. Now switching a nation’s fuel supply is a monumental challenge however these numbers and even more ambitious are exactly what is needed. I can only hope that in 203 years time that % could be moved up to over the 50% mark. Now this presentation was put on by Brazil however as it attracted an absolute packed room I suppose they decided to include another nations’ efforts on biofuel as well.
A strong fact I took away from this presentation was that all transportation emissions account for 25% of the worlds GHG “Green House Gas” emissions. So the aviation sector is moving ahead and the automotive sector is coming around even if it is not at ideal rate some of us wish it was. Sweden has a very ambitious plan of being completely fossil independent by 2030. This is the type of leadership that make’s me want to walk to Sweden and kiss every Swede I see. This is an ambitious, challenging, steep road to climb but non the less the Swede’s are up for the challenge. They plan on achieving this through Increased efficiency, Electricity and Biofuel. Now the population size, current high-tech infrastructure and very “green” society in place already will most defiantly ease the transition from now until a fossil independent 2030. I then said to myself “Where does Canada stand on climate change initiates with bold action as seen today”? Sadly my answer was far from what I wished to hear as among the G8 we were ranked last. This means that countries like Russia and the US are ahead of us on climate change initiatives. It tasted like I had a mouth full of dirty shameful coal, and it didn’t taste pretty.
Well, the other delegates and I did not come thousands of miles to complain and cry about it, we came for action, action, action!. What does our country need to do in order to clean up its act? Well for starters I think by cutting our absolute emissions. We need to then create pathways and guidelines so that individuals, corporations and society in general can flow into a greener direction. The role of the government should not be to run our economy, however they should be responsible by setting up a serious of parameters that encourage green investment, technologies, products and the jobs of tomorrow. Mr Andre Correa Do Lago stated “Without energy there is no development, without development there is no employment”. The “Energy Revolution” is what the world needs now he stated. The last 200 years of industrial revolution has taken us to new heights however the old dirty energy of the past will not take us into another 200 years. We need to rethink energy on a individual, national and international scale.
If Canada were to invest money into Solar, Wind, Wave, Geothermal and Biofuel technology and then mass-produce and sell to the world, we could become a true leader in both impressive economic figures but also in sustainability and environmental figures as well. The Canadian people want a prosperous nation both economically and environmentally, the question is will our Canadian Government act in Copenhagen to shift in this direction?
Us Canadian youth delegates plan on costructivly ensuring we do whatever possible to make sure.
Anything is possible if we only think positive and big!
So far it has been a great day. With that said it is time to go out with the IFLRY delegates for a pint at the pub and then for dinner. Good Night
My fist presentation I chose to attend was called “Greening U.S. aviation: The Roadmap to Reducing Greenhouse Gases” presented by US delegates. The reason I chose this 2 hour presentation was because being a regional airline pilot in Canada I wanted to further my understanding of how my own air transport industry will fly into the future on a “greener flight”. My passion and for some obvious reasons is in aircraft fuel technology. The reason aircraft are not environmentally friendly is because like every single current day combustion process, pollutants are emitted. Now the air transport industry has improved mind boggling %’s in both effiency, performance and reliability. In the past 40 years alone common day jets have improved over 70% in efficiency through an increase in engine and aerodynamic improvements. Now these are impressive numbers in a short span of only 40 years however it does not stop there. Now talk and action of biofuel is literally in the air. Did you know that in February of 2008 Virgin Atlantic Airlines flew a Boeing 747 from London to Amsterdam on 20% biofuel. This is amazing because it shows that biofuel can work in daily operations and perform to the strict aviation fuel spec’s for safety.
After a short lunch break and a brief IFLRY rendezvous we were off again for the afternoon. The second presentation I chose to attend was called “ The contribution of biofuels to climate change mitigation” presented by Brazilian Delegates. It was interesting because the US secretary for the environment, Lisa Jackson started of the presentation discussing how the US is planning on biofuel.
The US currently as we were informed only allows currently up to 10% to be used in normal gasoline on the road. They are waiting for a study to come out later this year to see how feasible it would be to allow a higher % of biofuel to be put in normal gasoline as an alternative option. As impressed as I was that we can see big international players such as the US moving towards a biofuel future, the transition period as currently laid out appears to be slow. Now switching a nation’s fuel supply is a monumental challenge however these numbers and even more ambitious are exactly what is needed. I can only hope that in 203 years time that % could be moved up to over the 50% mark. Now this presentation was put on by Brazil however as it attracted an absolute packed room I suppose they decided to include another nations’ efforts on biofuel as well.
A strong fact I took away from this presentation was that all transportation emissions account for 25% of the worlds GHG “Green House Gas” emissions. So the aviation sector is moving ahead and the automotive sector is coming around even if it is not at ideal rate some of us wish it was. Sweden has a very ambitious plan of being completely fossil independent by 2030. This is the type of leadership that make’s me want to walk to Sweden and kiss every Swede I see. This is an ambitious, challenging, steep road to climb but non the less the Swede’s are up for the challenge. They plan on achieving this through Increased efficiency, Electricity and Biofuel. Now the population size, current high-tech infrastructure and very “green” society in place already will most defiantly ease the transition from now until a fossil independent 2030. I then said to myself “Where does Canada stand on climate change initiates with bold action as seen today”? Sadly my answer was far from what I wished to hear as among the G8 we were ranked last. This means that countries like Russia and the US are ahead of us on climate change initiatives. It tasted like I had a mouth full of dirty shameful coal, and it didn’t taste pretty.
Well, the other delegates and I did not come thousands of miles to complain and cry about it, we came for action, action, action!. What does our country need to do in order to clean up its act? Well for starters I think by cutting our absolute emissions. We need to then create pathways and guidelines so that individuals, corporations and society in general can flow into a greener direction. The role of the government should not be to run our economy, however they should be responsible by setting up a serious of parameters that encourage green investment, technologies, products and the jobs of tomorrow. Mr Andre Correa Do Lago stated “Without energy there is no development, without development there is no employment”. The “Energy Revolution” is what the world needs now he stated. The last 200 years of industrial revolution has taken us to new heights however the old dirty energy of the past will not take us into another 200 years. We need to rethink energy on a individual, national and international scale.
If Canada were to invest money into Solar, Wind, Wave, Geothermal and Biofuel technology and then mass-produce and sell to the world, we could become a true leader in both impressive economic figures but also in sustainability and environmental figures as well. The Canadian people want a prosperous nation both economically and environmentally, the question is will our Canadian Government act in Copenhagen to shift in this direction?
Us Canadian youth delegates plan on costructivly ensuring we do whatever possible to make sure.
Anything is possible if we only think positive and big!
So far it has been a great day. With that said it is time to go out with the IFLRY delegates for a pint at the pub and then for dinner. Good Night
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