Flight International - 04

In July 2021, chief of the air staff Air Chief Marshal
Sir Mike Wigston, identifying climate change as a
transnational challenge, said: “In the UK, current
legislation requires all greenhouse gas emissions to be
net-zero by 2050, but I have set the RAF the challenge
of net-zero by 2040, because everything I see and
hear tells me that 2050 date will come forward.
“The way we power our aircraft, the way we power
our bases, the way we talk to our supply chain, to our
industrial suppliers about their carbon and sustainable
practices, are all going to be things that we are
going to have to tackle,” Wigston says. “It will take
decades and we need to start now.”
The RAF and NATO are the exceptions rather than
the rule by setting targets, but others will follow as
awareness grows and priorities change. Last year,
at the instigation of Wigston, the Global Air Forces
Climate Change Collaboration was formed, bringing
together 40 air forces on six continents to share best
practices, lessons learned and ideas.
“In our experience, sustainability was low down
the priority list, but it has been climbing the ladder
over the past few years and while delivering
operational effectiveness as cost-effectively as
possible will always be the top consideration, this
issue is right up there and will remain so,” explains
Adam Healy, principal consultant at global strategic
consultancy Roland Berger’s London office.
26bn
Gallons of jet fuel consumed in 2019 by the USA, with only
10% of this accounted for by the military, according to P&W
at Roland Berger. The firm has been focused on
aerospace and aviation sustainability since 2017 and is
working on sustainability strategies for armed forces
and the defence supplier ecosystem.
The consultancy is undertaking a major study to by
mid-year produce its own estimate of emissions from
defence supply chain activities and military operations
across multiple domains, says San Gregorio. “It
is a complex task as sustainability in defence covers
so many areas,” he says. “However, one thing is
certain: if the military and supply chain does nothing,
the impact of the sector will rise as a proportion of
the global total as other industries decarbonise.”
Low utilisation
In peacetime operations, the utilisation of military
aircraft such as fighters is low. “With [Lockheed
Martin] F-16s flying only 150 hours a year you can
be justified to ask: what’s the problem here?,” asks
Richard Aboulafia, managing director of Aero-
Dynamic Advisory. “The military is a fraction of
commercial flying.”
This view is highlighted by the fact that of the
26 billion gallons of jet fuel consumed in the USA
in 2019, only 10% was by the military, says Michael
Winter, principal fellow advanced technology at
Pratt & Whitney.
In the commercial world, the obligation to
decarbonise is often referred to as the “license to
operate”. For the main polluters – airlines – this
means that unless they find routes to achieve netzero
emissions, they will go out of business either
through regulation or increased costs.
The defence sector acknowledges that it must
reduce the impact of its military activities on the
climate, but strategists understand that climate
change brings different challenges in comparison
with the commercial world.
US Air Force
One of the big challenges for the defence sector is
actually measuring the size of its carbon footprint.
Military bodies were exempted from reporting their
emissions when binding greenhouse gas reduction
targets were set for the first time for industrialised
countries in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
“Military emissions are part of what is counted, but
the data is not good,” says Stoltenberg. NATO has
developed the first methodology for measuring its
greenhouse gas emissions, both civilian and military,
to help guide emission reduction efforts.
“It sets out what to count and how to count it, and
it will be made available to all allies to help them
reduce their own military emissions,” he says. “This is
vital, because what gets measured can get cut.”
Nobody disputes that the main contributor is
predominantly emissions from burning fuel in
operations, and specifically air operations, but there
are emissions from day-to-day activities like running
the vast military estate of buildings and transportation,
in addition to those associated with the building
of the aircraft, ships and land vehicles.
The commercial aviation industry’s share of global
greenhouse gas emissions is approximately 3%, with
various estimates of the military’s stake being between
1% and 5%, but certainly in the low single-digits,
says Miguel Lopez San Gregorio, senior consultant
“Military emissions are
part of what is counted,
but the data is not good”
Jens Stoltenberg Secretary general, NATO
NATO
52 Flight International April 2023