Climate change has become an issue that has aroused much public concern around the world in recent years. Public concerns over the potentially significant impacts of aviation on climate have pressured governments to control greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from air transport. Will "business as usual" technological progress be sufficient to stabilize GHG emissions from air transportation in the mid- to long-term? The answer is no. According to OECD (2008) air transportation could, based on a business-as-usual scenario, grow from 14.8% in 2010, to 23% of total transportation's CO2 emissions in 2050. (The world transportation sector emitted about a quarter of total CO2 emissions.) This is due partly to more readily available environmentally friendly energy in the future for ground-based transportation compared to air transportation, as well as faster growth rate of air transportation compared to other modes. In this talk, Prof. Zhang first will discuss challenges and opportunities faced by aviation industry under increasing environmental concern. He will then examine how the Amsterdam and Hong Kong airports deal with the problems and compare their similarities and differences. Finally, He will discuss research opportunities in the area.
Anming Zhang is a Full Professor in Operations and Logistics and holds Vancouver International Airport Authority Chair Professor in Air Transportation at Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia (UBC). He served as the Head of the Operations and Logistics Division, Sauder School of Business (2003-2005), and as the Director of UBC’s Centre for Transport Studies (2003-2004). He is President-elect of the World Air Transport Research Society (ATRS) and the President-elect of Transportation and Public Utilities Group (TPUG) of American Economic Association. Dr. Zhang is the recipient of the “Yokohama Special Prize for Outstanding Young Researcher” awarded at the 7th World Conference on Transportation Research (WCTR) in Sydney, Australia in 1995, and of the “WCTR-Society Prize”, awarded to the overall best paper of the 8th WCTR in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1998. In June 2014, he won the “Best Overall Paper Prize” at the annual ITEA (International Transport Economics Association) Conference on Transportation Economics, Toulouse School of Economics, France. Currently, he is also the Vice Present (Publications) of WCTR.
Dr. Zhang has published about 180 refereed journal papers and 30 book chapters in the areas of transportation, logistics, industrial organization, and Chinese economy. He has co-authored two books: Globalization and Strategic Alliances: The Case of the Airline Industry, 2000, Pergamon Press, Oxford; and Air Cargo in Mainland China and Hong Kong, 2004, Ashgate, London (Chinese editions published both in Hong Kong and Mainland China).