Management Update: Airlines mean business.

The heads of the world's regional airline associations met in Brussels last month to issue a statement reaffirming their commitment to the industry-wide global sectoral approach to aviation and climate change. The associations are supporting the efforts of the International Air Transport Association and the Air Transport Action Group to push for a strong International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) commitment at the ICAO General Assembly in September. With private industry taking the lead on this issue, the group hopes that government policy makers will listen. “We reaffirm our commitment to the industry-wide effort to reduce aviation's climate change impact through three targets: A 1.5 percent improvement in fuel efficiency annually from 2010; a cap on net carbon emissions from 2020 through carbon-neutral growth; and a 50 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050, compared with 2005 levels.”