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Scanning the Horizon: 28 Dec-1 Jan

The top 2020 trends in sustainability, according to GreenBiz readers

Source: GreenBiz

The article lays out top stories in sustainability over the past year covering solutions to climate change, renewable energy and waste:

  • Electrification of transportation is expected to grow from 1% to 12% of fleet in the US

  • New types of manufacturing processes promise to reduce and reuse plastics indefinitely

  • Emerging electric planes companies bring a hope to electrify air travel for flights under 500 miles - approx 45% of all global flights

  • Hydrogen came out as a strong candidate to help ease the energy transition from coal-based to renewable

  • Regenerative agriculture practices promise to help restore and rebuild soil and fix industry's image as a large polluter

  • Tree planting and carbon credits prove effective with a new strong player startup, Pachama, used by the Silicon Valley giants

  • Black Lives Matter movement helped shed a light on discrimination which exposes marginalized communities to adverse environmental impacts


The top 10 Air Cargo World stories of 2020

Source: Air Cargo World

Some of the biggest stories in air cargo community in the past year included:

  • Passenger aircraft conversion to cargo planes and companies designing shipping containers for this new space

  • Large scale shipments of PPEs, other medical equipment and medication

  • Amazon looking to build a startup cargo airline "PrimeAir"

  • Due to overwhelming demand and air cargo capacity constraints freight forwarders moved to multimodal shipping approach utilizing air, rail and road and ending up with longer transit times in 2020


Boeing 777 freighters bring relief to tight air cargo market

Source: American Shipper

Air cargo capacity crunch with 25% less availability is facing ever growing need with rise of e-commerce orders, perishable foods and COVID-19 vaccines. The article explores how recent deliveries of Boeing 777 freighters to Qatar Airways, China Airlines and AirBridgeCargo are meant to ease the capacity issue.



Which Passenger Carriers Also Fly Cargo Jets?

Source: Simple Flying

Once the global pandemic hit the aviation industry in 2020, the air cargo market transformed dramatically with passenger airlines operating more aircraft for cargo-only flights, a trend that we anticipate will continue well into 2021.


For some airlines, having a cargo fleet in 2020 was crucial and could have even defined if they were to survive or collapse in 2020. Here are some of the largest: Emirates SkyCargo, Cathay Pacific Cargo, Lufthansa Cargo, Qatar Airways Cargo and Turkish Airlines Cargo.



In Canada, shippers race to move cancer treatments as COVID-19 grounds flights

Source: Reuters

As anticipated, due to grounded passenger flights due to flaming global pandemic, time-sensitive treatments, like radiochemical materials for cancer treatment are facing transportation constraints.


Another side effect to this situation, aside for delays, - skyrocketing transportations costs. Airlines are also deploying smaller planes, which have less cargo capacity.


However, the recent kick off of transport of COVID-19 vaccines, equal to approximately 0.3% of global air cargo is not likely to bump time-sensitive medical products in cargo planes.



2020: The Year of Green Hydrogen in 10 Stories

Source: Green Tech Media

Green hydrogen which is produced using renewable-powered electrolyzers could replace methane to generate heat or power. Green hydrogen has also a potential to replace high-carbon hydrogen and be used as fuel in heavy transport like aviation.


The key drivers of green hydrogen development are:

  • Government policies and official targets to move to renewable energy

  • Demand from the energy sector and transport industry

  • Concrete projects kicking off (Shell's hydrogen valley, Ammonia export hub)

  • Investment in hydrogen supply chain (electrolyzer gigafactory plan)

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