Trisha Ghosh, Pune
Sweden has proposed ties and joint efforts with India for sustainable solutions in the aviation sector. It has also proposed co-operative efforts for electrification in the auto sector. The Nordic country has recently been showing significant interest in strengthening business and economic ties and cooperation with India.
Johan Davidson, State Secretary for Infrastructure and Housing in Sweden, recently had an interview with Press Trust of India (PTI). Herein, he declared India to be an “important partner”, given it has the most rapidly growing aviation sector globally. He said, “There is a lot of interest in Indian growth and new business opportunities for Swedish companies.”
Sweden possesses a large amount of capacity and capability when it comes to sustainable aviation, in which it has been a global leader. More than 80 Swedish companies have the resources and expertise necessary to develop and implement effective solutions to global environmental challenges directly caused by air travel.
One major focus of the initiative for sustainability in the aviation sector is Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). Notably, last year a conference was hosted by the International Civil Aviation Organization. Therein, members had reached an agreement for a global framework to incentivise the production and usage of sustainable fuel across countries. The goal was for all aviation fuels to be less carbon-intensive by 5 percent by the year 2030. This would require the production of 17.5 billion liters of SAF.
Davidson added that Sweden also intends to resume direct flights to India. According to the State Secretary, the largest proportion of foreigners in Sweden consists of over 60,000 Indians, most of whom are settled in the capital city of Stockholm. An increase in direct flight services between the two countries would mean greater business in the tourism sector for both, as well as in trade and exchange.
Till now Indigo, one of India’s largest airlines, has recently partnered the Swedish company Altered with the objective of incorporating innovative technologies in order to reduce in-flight water consumption by 98%.In the future, India and Sweden may manage to increase their partnership and channel their synergy into the ‘green transition’ that is required in aviation as a whole.