19 Oct Is the industry resisting transformation?
Since the beginning of 2023, the industry folks have been discussing meeting sustainability goals in full force. Almost every conference/summit is sure to have 3 out of 5 topics on sustainability. Some leading airports, ports, handlers and other stakeholders have also set goals and mandates to achieve by the year-end and in the coming years.
Yet, there is zero action on the ground, according to industry experts. Reportedly, in recent times, the overall emissions from the air cargo industry have grown on a miniscule level. The number is said to soar rapidly and cause acute climate change effects. On the other hand, resistance from stakeholders is a primary cause of concern for regulators and governments. Due to the same, IATA’s e-freight initiative has not picked up a solid pace even after a decade. Here are some reasons for the resistance.
Lack of Awareness
Climate change risks as a phrase is famous, but airports and the stakeholders involved fail to look at their contribution towards emissions. Recently, airports and stakeholders have started realising the relative impact of the push from regulatory authorities and other industry bodies. However, the awareness is still limited in several regions worldwide.
Lack of Transparency and Traceability
An airport ecosystem is large in nature. While the authorities look at the hotspots, they possibly do not track the happenings at the airport, which is not in their purview. This leads to a lack of transparency and visibility within the environment. Therefore, if emissions from the airport occur from a place that doesn’t fall in the full purview of the airport authority, higher unaccounted emissions are possible.
Resistance to adhering to norms
IATA, the quintessential regulator for air cargo, has been pushing to adopt electronic air waybills for over a decade. Only now, the leading players have started considering it seriously. On the other hand, small and medium players are hardly considering sustainability as part of their innovation framework. A lack of global mandate and guidelines for the industry further adds to the challenges.
Thinking long term and short term
In the long run, ensuring net carbon neutrality is the ultimate goal for the industry. The airports that have begun adhering to digital trade facilitation will reap the benefits in the future. This means their efforts must be consistent, and the short-term goal of achieving process-oriented transformations will help them meet these goals. The industry can achieve long-term sustainability by consistently meeting the desired carbon neutrality levels.
How Cargo Community Systems promote paperless trade?
Cargo Community System is a new age tool that empowers the stakeholders with information sharing, validation and verification by authorities taking place online, ensuring paperless trade becomes a reality for every airport. In airports handling more capacities, elimination of paper-based operations will save millions of physical documents. This leads to ease of operations on an operational purview and saves enough trees on a sustainability perspective.