Infrastructure is a fundamental driver of economic development and human prosperity. Each pound spent results in a substantial multiplier effect across the economy through employment and productivity gains. Well-designed infrastructure not only has positive impacts on long-term growth but can also contribute towards a better quality of life, more social cohesion, and the protection and enhancement of natural ecosystems. At the same time, transport infrastructure development over the last two centuries has resulted in the carbon emissions that are now causing climate change.
There are two overarching requirements for vertiport infrastructure in mitigating climate change:
- Infrastructure assets and facility users such as aircraft, airlines and even integrated surface transport must have the lowest possible whole life GHG emissions as well as minimising end-user emissions.
- The overall scale, pace and type of infrastructure built across the economy must be aligned to net-zero.
Airlift proposes transformative changes by repurposing of existing infrastructure assets and the creation of entirely new infrastructure systems. Decisions over what economic infrastructure is built and how it is delivered must also recognise the rapid societal and technological changes arising through digitisation, decentralisation and wider macroeconomic trends. These changes have the potential to transform our needs for aviation and transport infrastructure, radically shift development approaches and improve the efficiency of infrastructure use, resulting in societal impact and improving the quality of life for all.
Airlift advocates adaptive, system-level perspectives which underpin infrastructure planning and delivery so that Net Zero is achieved in ways that are flexible and responsive to a changing wider landscape. An urgent transformation of transport and aviation infrastructure is required to respond to climate change.
The Airlift initiative is aligned with the Paris Climate Agreement and UN Sustainable Climate Initiatives, making the world a cleaner and greener better place.