17 November 2023

10:25 – 11:10

Amphithéâtre Painlevé

Patrick Gandil

Patrick Gandil has been a Conseiller d’Etat in extraordinary service since October 2020. From 2007 until this date, Patrick Gandil was Director General of Civil Aviation. After graduating from Polytechnique and the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, he f√ªt Director of Teaching at the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées from 1984 to 1988. He held a number of positions within the French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy: project manager for decentralization between 1988 and 1994, head of the air bases department between 1997 and 1999, director of roads between 1999 and 2003, chief of staff to Minister Gilles de Robien until 2005, then Secretary General of the Ministry of Transport, Equipment, Tourism and the Sea before heading the DGAC. Patrick Gandil also chaired the Eurocontrol Board from 2010 to 2013.

Conference: Why and how to decarbonize aviation?

Aviation is under unprecedented attack from environmental movements and parties, leading the public to believe that it is largely responsible for climate change. This is clearly not the case, both in terms of historical and current emissions. Aviation is being treated as a scapegoat, using a technique well known to totalitarian regimes. However, it does emit CO2 and contributes to the creation of induced cirrus clouds, clouds that darken the atmosphere and whose importance in relation to natural cirrus clouds is poorly understood. Clearly, aviation must play its part in reducing emissions, but that’s not enough. Society’s expectations, even if based on false insinuations, are such that aviation’s objective must be zero emissions. To decarbonize aviation, we can improve the fuel efficiency of current aircraft by powering them with fossil carbon-free synthetic fuels, or design new aircraft that run on electricity (provided it is decarbonized) or hydrogen (which must also be decarbonized). Hydrogen can be br√ªled in jet engines or oxidized in fuel cells to produce electricity on board. Designing and producing zero-emission aircraft: this is the new frontier for our engineers and researchers, which will safeguard our freedom of movement and enterprise, which are under serious threat today.