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lass & Relax Lifestyle Magazine: Bertrand Piccard, you have often opened up the field of possibilities, notably by flying Solar Impulse around the world, demonstrating that solar energy could provide the power needed to keep this aircraft flying. You set up the Solar Impulse Foundation, which today groups toge- ther 1,700 efficient solutions for preserving the environment while being economically profitable, and your new project envi- sages a non-stop round-the-world flight in an aircraft powered by green hydrogen, Climate Impulse. This is your second appearan- ce at World Connect by APG. What do you think of this year's debate: is it politics or economics that drives the development of air transport? And I'd like to add, between the two, ecology? Bertrand Piccard: I'm going to add a fourth point, which is essen- tial, and that is technology, because evolution must be possible. I would say that when a change is ecologically necessary and technically possible, if it is economically favourable, it will be adopted. As long as it is not economically profitable, we need politics to ensure that there is no distortion of competition bet- ween players. When you have a ‘level playing field’, it's much easier to reach agreement, because everyone has the same chances of succeeding. That's where politics has an important role to play. Class & Relax Lifestyle Magazine: Your way of anticipating the future and giving it substance, your human and technical exploits, are difficult to share with the aviation world. With Climate Impulse, you plan to circumnavigate the globe in an air- craft powered by hydrogen. When you talk to airline CEOs about hydrogen today, they find it hard to say or imagine that one day it could become a reality. But yet a revolution is underway. Bertrand Piccard: You know, we've had exactly the same situa- tions in the past. When farmers were told that animal and human labour would be replaced by steam engines and tractors, there was total scepticism. There was even a fear that the role of the human being could be eliminated: in fact, mechanisation has enabled the development of agriculture, which was absolutely necessary. When we switched to combustion engines for land transport, many people said that it was easier to feed hay to horses in inns than to have to build filling stations for cars and lorries, and so it happened. One of the latest revolutions is the mobile phone. We thought it would remain a niche technology, because the first mobile phones were as big as suitcases and cost €10,000. And
nobody imagined that it would be possible to build antennas absolutely everywhere and reduice their size. Today it's done, and we even have satellite connections on mobile phones. You should never say that something is impossible. You can say that it’s difficult, that we don’t know yet how to do it, but it’s very dangereous to say that it’s impossible, because then you look like an idiot. It's true that hydrogen-powered aviation is not feasible on a large scale at the moment, because there is little or no production of green hydrogen, and there is virtually no demand and no techno- logy to enable large aircraft to fly on hydrogen, but I would say that this is precisely why we need to start, to give it time. We need to launch this green hydrogen industry, and Climate Impulse's aim is to make hydrogen-powered aviation desirable. That doesn't mean that we'll have hydrogen-powered aircraft straight away, but it must show an intention, a will, and that's what Climate Impulse is all about. Class & Relax Lifestyle Magazine: Does the political world gene- rally welcome your innovative projects, which have no immediate economic prospects? Was it easy to fly around the world with Solar Impulse, politically speaking, with the civil aviation of the many countries you flew over? Bertrand Piccard: With Solar Impulse, we had a great deal of sup- port from the Swiss diplomatic services. Switzerland is a neutral country, so we were accepted much more easily. Our plane had a ‘permit to fly’ : it's not a certification but an experimental flight permit issued by the Swiss civil aviation authority: it was recogni- sed by all the countries we flew over. I have to say that because it was an ecological and experimental project, we received an extraordinary welcome. In China, President Xi Jinping said: ‘This project is important for China because we need solar energy’. In fact, China is starting to produ- ce green hydrogen, and the first step was to have solar power stations everywhere to produce enough hydrogen. Hydrogen can also be produced from wind and hydroelectric power: a lot of renewable energy is needed. India is in the process of switching to hydrogen as well. But these industries are still in their infancy, which is why we need to encourage them as much as possible. Europe has very ambitious plans for hydrogen production, but the reality lags far behind the intention.
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