If that sounds a bit like a formula for a chemists’ convention, it’s nonetheless the UK’s route to ‘decarbonizing’ air travel, according to UK Transport Secretary Grant Schapps, who said the UK will focus efforts on hydrogen-powered planes and other transport.
Schapps spoke at Expo 2020 Dubai earlier in the week, announcing that the UK and United Arab Emirates have agreed on a partnership in an ‘innovation centre’ that will focus on clean-air strategies for the aviation and shipping industries.
He told the conference, postponed from last year because of the pandemic, that decarbonizing international transport is “the biggest challenge” in dealing with climate change. Flight emissions are top of mind, he said, because “If we can decarbonize aviation, the rest of transport is relatively straightforward.”
The innovation center is to open next year on the site of the Expo in Dubai.
Image: three Airbus prototypes for hydrogen-powered jetliners
It probably is a very sensible route to explore. Whether something will come of it, is a different question – but that’s what research is all about.