Airbus says it will reduce CO2 emissions from its planes by half between now and 2020, said Louis Gallois, chief executive of the EADS unit, Forbes reports.
‘Starting in 2008 Airbus will increase its budget for research and technology by 25 percent’ as part of an effort to ensure that by 2020 all new Airbus aircraft will emit half the amount of carbon dioxide released at present, he added.
Gallois also appealed to Airbus competitor Boeing to take take part in an industry conference on protecting the environment.
A Boeing official said that “if there’s something new, we’d be open to it”, noting that a number of industry initiatives existed to align aircraft and engine development with changing environmental standards, Financial Times reports.
When the IATA, a trade group representing the airlines of the world, set a goal last week of developing a “zero-emissions” airplane within 50 years, Boeing said it wanted a more near-term and industrywide approach – not one focused solely on airplane technology that is too far off.
On Thursday EasyJet, the UK low-cost carrier and one of Airbus’s most important customers, set out its environmental requirements for the next generation of short-haul “super-clean” aircraft.