Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Won-tae / Courtesy of Hanjin Group

By Park Jae-hyuk

Hanjin Group and Korean Air Chairman Cho Won-tae, also known as Walter Cho, attended a meeting between the Korea-France Club and the France-Korea Club at the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs building in Paris last Friday, to talk about the global aviation industry's efforts to confront climate change.

The Korea-France Club and the France-Korea Club were organized in 2015 and 2016, respectively, to celebrate 130 years of diplomatic ties between the two countries. Businesspeople and scholars from the two countries have participated in the clubs' annual meeting to discuss countermeasures against various contemporary problems.

In the session on energy and nuclear power that day, Cho cited Korean Air's efforts to show how the global air carriers have counteracted the climate crisis.

He also mentioned the fact that the global air carriers at the International Air Transport Association's (IATA) annual general meeting last October agreed to achieve net-zero by 2050. They felt the necessity of preemptive measures to reduce carbon emissions at high altitudes, although their combined carbon emissions only account for 2.5 percent of total global carbon emissions.

"The chairman introduced Korean Air's efforts for carbon reduction, such as enhancing fuel efficiency of each flight, recycling wastes from the cabin, purchasing carbon-neutral jet aircraft fuel, developing sustainable fuel and introducing eco-friendly aircrafts," Hanjin Group said in a press release. "He also disclosed our company's plan to make various efforts to fight the climate crisis."