Canada’s civil air navigation provider NAV Canada says its greenhouse gas emissions reductions initiatives saw approximately 570 million litres of fuel saved and GHGs abated topping 1.4 million tonnes in 2015.

Details are provided in the agency’s annual Collaborative Initiatives for Emissions Reduction report (CIFER) released on October 3.

"NAV CANADA has undertaken numerous activities designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fuel burn from aviation activity," said Neil Wilson, president and CEO at NAV Canada.

"We work closely with our customers to better understand how aircraft fly most efficiently and what changes we can make to reduce emissions and fuel burn, all while ensuring the safety of the system. From 1997, when we began some of these initiatives, to 2020, we estimate that they will have reduced emissions by a total of 21 million tonnes," he added.

Over the years, NAV Canada has implemented a number of new flying initiatives that allow planes to fly closer together and achieve more optimal fuel efficiency. Two such emerging programs, RLongSM and GOFLI, have enabled the reduction of 14,000 tonnes of GHGs and 6 million litres of fuel. By 2020, they will result in 26,000 Mt of reduced emissions or 10 million litres of fuel.

Another emerging initiatrive is RLatSM and it’s expected to enable annual CO2 emissions reductions of more than 10,000 tonnes. By 2020, the cumulative savings will be 35,000 Mt carbon emissions or 14 million litres of fuel.

More emissions reduction and fuel savings figures to 2020 from the CIFER report:

• ADS-B: 991,000 Mt of CO2e or 387 million litres of fuel
• Improvements to Calgary airport operations: 45,000 Mt of CO2e and 18 million litres
• Space based ADS-B: 567,000 Mt of CO2e or 222 million litres
• Area navigation: 2.087 million Mt of Co2e or 818 million litres
• Bagotville Military airspace: 53,000 Mt of CO2e or 21 million litres
• Polar routes: more than 7.8 million Mt of CO2e or more than 3 billion litres of fuel