Lufthansa targets new aims in environment and climate protection

Lufthansa spelled out ambitious goals in its strategic environmental program.

Lufthansa spelled out ambitious goals in its strategic environmental program. The group has specified 15 guidelines to steer its path towards the realization of further decisive progress in environmental efficiency by the year 2020. Lufthansaโ€™s efforts on behalf of the environment, climate protection and social responsibility are documented in the groupโ€™s Sustainability Report โ€œBalance.โ€ The 14th issue of the Report is scheduled to be published shortly.

โ€œLufthansa has in recent years succeeded in decoupling traffic growth from its deleterious impact on the environment. Since 1991, half of its traffic growth has been achieved without any increase in CO2 emissions. With the four-pillar strategy, agreed upon with other airlines, we have an effective and comprehensive concept for reducing emissions, whereby standardization of air traffic control through implementation of a Single European Sky remains Europeโ€™s single biggest environment protection project. Our strategic environmental program for safeguarding mobility clearly demonstrates that we are firmly intent on doing our share in the future in shouldering our responsibility for environment and climate protectionโ€, said Wolfgang Mayrhuber, chairman and CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa AG.

The 15 guidelines ensue from the internationally-recognized four-pillar strategy, which spans the entire range of practicable measures for protecting the climate in the operation of air traffic. The principle points of the strategic environmental program include support of the IATA fuel-efficiency target and the intention to reduce CO2 emissions per flown kilometer by 25 per cent by 2020 against the level in 2006. Lufthansa supports the ACARE target of reducing nitrogen oxide emissions by 80 per cent by 2020 compared with the level in the year 2000 and intends to increase the amount of bio-fuel admixed with conventional kerosene up to ten per cent by 2020. Additionally, Lufthansa supports ecologically-oriented incentive systems, which rest on an economic and revenue-neutral basis, for example, emission-based landing fees, which were introduced earlier this year at Frankfurt and Munich Airports. Lufthansa will continue to advocate within international organizations a practicable solution for including air traffic in emissions trading and will further pursue diverse noise abatement measures and cooperate in related research projects designed to achieve the ACARE objective of halving noise emissions by 2020.

Faced with increasing mobility needs, the air traffic industry must respond to forthcoming challenges in environment protection policy. Environmental protection is a tradition at Lufthansa and a prime corporate objective. With its strategic environmental program, the group has charted a road map for sustainable growth and profitability in the years to come.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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