The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) and the International Business Aviation Council (IBAC), along with IBAC’s member associations, today announced they are teaming on an “aggressive strategy” to further mitigate the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions. “Business aviation has established an excellent record of consistently improving fuel efficiency, delivering 40-percent improvement over the past 40 years,” the groups said. “Business aviation’s worldwide carbon emissions are approximately 2 percent of all aviation and 0.04 percent of global man-made carbon emissions.” Still, the program’s goals include carbon-neutral growth by 2020, an improvement in fuel efficiency of an average of 2 percent per year until 2020 and a reduction in total carbon emissions of 50 percent by 2050 relative to 2005. These targets are based largely on developments and advancements in technology; infrastructure and operational improvements; alternative fuels; and market-based measures, the associations said. “Business aviation manufacturers and operators will put forth a sustained effort to meet these targets, but a strong partnership between industry and government is also absolutely necessary to achieve these goals,” noted GAMA president and CEO Pete Bunce. IBAC director general Don Spruston also called for a more unified approach to addressing aviation emissions, commenting, “ICAO should be granted sectoral responsibility to develop a simple and straightforward system to address aviation emissions worldwide.”