30 September, 2025

On 9th September 2025, the team at the Aviation Impact Accelerator showcased our work directly to those at the heart of decision-making, hosting an exciting event at the House of Commons. The gathering attracted leading voices from across world of aviation, rallying momentum towards the goal of achieving climate neutral aviation.

Sébastien Dubois, EU Clean Aviation, gives a keynote speech.

We were delighted that the event was sponsored by George Freeman MP, who also gave an inspiring keynote speech, commenting that the AIA’s approach of producing whole-system modelling insights and convening key decision-makers should be replicated across different government policy areas. We were also delighted to hear remarks from Sébastien Dubois (Head of Programme Development, EU Clean Aviation) about the EU’s aviation decarbonisation strategy, and the importance of integrating the EU and UK’s strategies. EU Clean Aviation is a member of the AIA’s Transatlantic Strategic Aviation Partnership.

Eliot Whittington (Chief Systems Change Officer, CISL) and Professor Rob Miller (Director, Whittle Laboratory), co-leads of the AIA, also delivered speeches.

George Freeman MP, the event sponsor, gives a keynote speech.

We were joined by over 60 guests from the AIA’s wide network including industry leaders (the Royal Air Force, Stratos, Rolls-Royce, Flexjet, ZeroAvia, ATI, NATS and more), policymakers including EU Clean Aviation, the Civil Aviation Authority and the Department for Transport, as well as a wide range Members of Parliament and Peers, strengthening our ties with the UK Parliament. We were also delighted to be joined by many NGOs including Green Alliance, Possible, the Aviation Environment Federation and Opportunity Green, as well as leading UK academics and thought leaders.

The AIA offered a private demonstration to our guests of a brand new interactive modelling tool, ‘Chart your own Future for Aviation’. This tool allows users to explore different technology and policy pathways to climate-neutral aviation, and reveals the environmental, economic and resource implications of each scenario. 

AIA analyst Ana S. presenting the ‘Chart your own Future’ tool to a range of attendees.

Guests heard how the UK is well-placed to be the global leader on innovating aviation for sustainability:

  • Aerospace is one of UK’s most productive industries, and scaling up sustainable aviation technologies offers a significant economic as well as environmental opportunity. However, action is needed soon to seize this opportunity; investment and R&D is needed now and over the next five years be on track for net zero emissions by 2050.
  • Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) is a vital interim measure and must be used in conjunction with other levers, including investment in moonshot technologies, and systems-wide efficiency measures, due to biomass resource requirements and lack of export market for UK.
  • Non-CO2 impacts are responsible for half of aviation’s warming impact and addressing these is a relatively quick win.

Follow our social media channels to see short clips from the event, including interviews with speakers. 

Thank you to everyone who attended and made the event a success!