By Xavier BOUIS, AAE member and President of the IESF Aeronautics and Aerospace Sectoral Committee… and SNCF “Grand Voyageur”
Why this article?
I had this article published in April on the website of the Engineers and Scientists of France (IESF). Several colleagues of the AAE persuaded me to present it as “free speech” on the Academy’s website. And that’s a fact! Details have been added in italics
I am currently working on the issues of decarbonisation of air transport, which leads me to broader questions about the carbon-free electrical energy that all sectors will need to have before 2050. So, last week in my usual TGV which boasts a superb “80 times less CO2 than the plane” I wondered if it would be so much easier for trains than for planes. NB: It seems to me that in June the Paris-Bordeaux-Toulouse TGV changed its slogan to “the most ecological way”!
My IESF (and AAE!) readers, engineers for the most part, know that the emissions of a sector of activity, in order for them to be considered in their entirety, must be the subject of an LCA (life cycle assessment) without settling for the first so-called “scope 1” approach which only deals with immediate emissions such as fuel consumption and not everything that is necessary for the development of the good or service we buy… and a “hidden” CO2 generator. Who realizes that everyone, by watching over their consumption of electricity, gasoline or heating oil, already imports on average half of their electricity without knowing it…