 Hello and welcome to Top 10 Emerging Technologies, a show from the World Economic Forum that looks at the performance of some of the most promising technologies of the last decade. I'm your host, Greta Keenan, and in this episode we'll be talking about electric aviation, which made it onto our 2020 list. To get us started, let's take a look at this clip from our Davos agenda week earlier this year where Grazia Vittadini, chief technology officer at Airbus, shed her reflections on building a pathway to net zero aviation. Well these days the question I get asked most highlights are quite different paradox, so is aviation still committed to net zero or will it focus rather on recovering profitability first? Here today to tell us more about electric aviation is Catherine Hamilton, chair of 38 North Solutions and co-chair of the Forum's Global Future Council on Clean Electrification. Hi Catherine, thanks for joining us. Hello, delighted to be here today. So Catherine, before we delve into the technology, can you tell us a bit about this transition from fuel powered aviation to electric powered planes? What is the ambition there and what are the drivers behind this transition? Absolutely, we are transitioning to a world with zero carbon and the aviation sector is 2% of the carbon and that was as of 2019 and it is only slated to grow, even with COVID to grow even more. So this is what is originally interested me in this sector was this combination of needing to decarbonise and also knowing that there were lots and lots of companies out there looking at this sector and coming up with new innovations, coming up with new technologies that could really make it work and also that the regulatory environment in which those airplanes and other types of electric aviation mobility technologies was really opening up for all of them. So electric aviation made it onto the top 10 emerging technologies list just last year. Can you tell us about any progress that has been made in this field since then? Well electric aviation has been around a while if you think about electric gliders and you think about other kinds of technology that are small vehicles. It's really taken off in the last year since we even put this report out and it's hundreds of companies are coming up with new ways of doing this. In addition to new innovation and technology companies, we're seeing that there is supply chain being created for these industries and most importantly companies like Airbus, United Airlines, DHL, UPS, all of the big purchasers are also purchasing and putting in orders for these airplanes. Can you give us a bit of an overview of how the technology works? Are all electric planes equal and do they run on the same sort of technology? So there are a couple different main models of electric aviation. One is your typical fixed wing aircraft, which is just as you would see in the air now flying and it would simply be converted. The other is something called electric vertical takeoff and landing EV tall. And these are super interesting for urban settings, which is almost like a helicopter taking off and then converting into an airplane, a traditional type of airplane. So there's sort of these two main technology interests and then there are other technologies that are coming into play with batteries. So there are typical lithium ion electric batteries and there are hydrogen fuel cells. But I would say some examples are you would have your typical fixed wing hybrid. So you would have a combination of electric and internal combustion engine. You would have a fixed wing all electric, which would be a battery, or a fixed wing electric with hydrogen. And then you have this really interesting EV tall space with electric vertical takeoff and landing. When can we expect these planes to take to the sky with passengers in them? So it's pretty interesting because a lot of these companies are already testing the flight of these technologies and showing that they work. But really crucial to all of this is especially in the United States FAA regulation and certification. So that's the Federal Aviation Administration. And it takes a long time to get a plane certified to fly. Luckily, electric aviation has been approved for certification. And we would expect to see some of these planes being certified in about 2023. So the first really important space to tackle are the very small, say two seater training planes. So these are ones that train all of our pilots to learn how to fly. And those are going to be ready within the next couple of years, I would think, because their company is already testing those. And it's very important to do that. We need to train pilots and they have to have a certain number of hours under the belt. And the next flights would be slightly larger, perhaps for small cargo shipments or perhaps to move people from in short distances. But what you're going to need to see is how are we then going to have flights that go, say, across the ocean? And that may take a little bit longer, but we have to take one step at a time. Can you tell us who are the other major players in this space? And where do you see the technology going in the next few years? Yeah, you see, in addition to Airbus United Airlines, DHL, UPS, Azul, Mesa Airlines, Cape Air, which was mentioned in our report for these short flights. You'll find Beta and Joby and Lilliam that are doing these EVTOL technologies and then companies like Buy Aerospace that are doing fixed wing flight. But there are lots of companies out there that are innovating and they have lots of customers waiting in the wings. What are the key technological challenges that need to be overcome for electric aviation to really go mainstream in the years ahead? One of the key challenges is really the battery density. And luckily, because of electric vehicles and energy storage, batteries have come a long way. So lithium-ion batteries have really developed in a way that are much more dense, but we could expect to see solid state batteries as well. And as the development and desire for batteries progresses, that will also help the electric aviation industry. The other piece is hydrogen fuel cells. So we need to adapt lots of different technologies that will be able to address different use cases of electric aviation. In your opinion, Catherine, what are the major obstacles to electric aviation in the near future? And how are we best positioned to overcome them? Some of the biggest obstacles are really in innovation and making sure that not only do we innovate, but that we also scale the innovation and that we have a healthy supply chain for all of the technologies that are going to go into those aircraft. And we also need to make sure that we approve them and so that when people get on a flight, whether it is a small flight from town to town, whether you're taking your pilot license or whether you're hauling cargo, that you have confidence the plane has been certified and that is safe for you to get in and travel in, and in fact that you will feel better flying in that plane. Catherine, thank you so much for all your insights today on electric aviation. Thank you so much for having me. The global aviation industry is responsible for over 2% of the world's carbon emissions. Transitioning from fuel-powered to electric planes would not only reduce the industry's carbon footprint, but could also make our skies quieter, all while driving down the cost of flying. The technology behind electric aviation is advancing at a rapid pace, with many companies already scheduling test flights later this year. Smaller planes will likely take to the skies much sooner than larger jets, which will require battery technology to become lighter and more powerful. But before electric aviation really takes off, airlines must first invest into testing and training in order to meet commercial safety standards and passenger acceptance. If you enjoyed this episode, please join the conversation on social media. You can catch up on all the other episodes in this series at the link below and look out for the 10th anniversary of the top 10 emerging technologies report launching in November.