Dr. Ulrike Ziegler is president of IMPACT, a non-profit association founded in early 2022 by leading financiers in aviation. IMPACT, a global platform, aims at promoting transparency on airlines' CO2 data, providing tangible KPIs to measure and track their carbon footprint and enhancing industry-wide discussion on sustainability. Ulrike has more than 20 years of aviation experience and held senior positions at UniCredit Bank as Global Head of Aircraft Finance and at ING Germany as Head of Aviation. She has worked with airlines and lessors around the globe at various stages of their business development. Keen to facilitate change, she has spearheaded major strategic projects at both UniCredit and ING.

Ulrike, thank you for taking the time to (virtually) sit down and talk with me. We have known each other for a couple of years now and it was great to see you at IMPACT’s inaugural Aviation Climate Stocktake Forum a few weeks ago. Before we discuss the Stocktake Forum, I wanted to get a better understanding of how you transitioned from your role to this position as president of IMPACT – what lead you down that road?

It's a combination of two things. No. 1: Ever since I got involved in aircraft finance, I've been hooked and it's hard to imagine a (professional) life without contact with aviation. No. 2: Imagine me sitting in my car on the way to work, inadvertently stuck in a traffic jam, listening to a talk on the radio about the CO2 emissions of driving a car - the figure was about 2kg per litre of petrol. I did the maths and was shocked. From that point on, sustainability became an important consideration in my personal life - I didn't go "all green", but I started to look at what I could do to help reduce emissions. Fast forward to 2022; when the initiators of IMPACT asked me if I'd be interested in working with the association, I was excited because it allowed me to combine two things I love: aviation and sustainability.

And so we fast forward to 2024 and the inaugural Stocktake Forum, which was more than a commercial conference and rather a focused, action-oriented forum – what was the impetus behind IMPACT organising the Stocktake Forum?

The number of sustainability-related conferences, particularly those on SAF, is increasing year on year. This is an important development as it demonstrates the relevance of SAF to aviation decarbonisation; many of us speakers, including myself, emphasise the importance of cooperation and collaboration between different stakeholders and across borders to address the complexity of the aviation decarbonisation supply chain and to de-risk respective projects. However, most of the talk is not translated into action and we remain in our echo chambers. We decided to take it upon ourselves to connect the dots and invite relevant stakeholder representatives.

Furthermore, the decarbonisation wedge charts give a false sense of security; these charts are based on hundreds of assumptions and we came to the realisation that we may not be moving the decarbonisation levers in the timeframe and on the timeline that we expected. It was time to take stock! And who better to do that than top scientists? We desperately needed their input to kickstart the conversation on solutions that require collaboration across countries and stakeholders, including policymakers, finance, technology, infrastructure, airlines, lessors and academia.

The approach – as someone who attends a commercial conference or two – was certainly very refreshing to experience.  I hope you were pleased with how it went – what were the main takeaways from your perspective?

Satisfied? More than that; not only did we have a great turnout, despite clashing with two other events and clashing with the end of year business, but we also saw an unprecedented level of engagement from attendees. As one source said, "one of the best events on the subject". The enthusiasm in the room was unprecedented; a diverse group of people from different stakeholder groups, including scientists, ready to drive the aviation decarbonisation agenda. A lot of content was shared - an important prerequisite for moving to the next level.

Part of the organisation behind the Stocktake Forum was to develop working groups on key areas for action in further supporting the aviation decarbonization agenda – how do you envisage these working groups will progress that agenda?

The working groups that will be established will continue to provide insight into the financial implications of not achieving meaningful decarbonisation, how to mobilise funding for decarbonisation technologies, but also consider embedding meaningful metrics in finance and lease agreements. All of these issues are holding back much-needed progress; we need to bring the various stakeholders together to proactively move the agenda forward. And there is a growing sense of urgency to meet the net zero challenge.

Finally, as we approach the New Year, what are the main drivers for impact’s activities in the year ahead and beyond?

We need to move forward on the agenda of increasing transparency on Scope 1 & Scope 3 emissions associated with aviation; most of the industry talk is about intensity improvements. This is undisputed and the industry has done a tremendous job in this regard, but the projected doubling of the fleet will more than offset such improvements. Let me refer to a statement made by Annie Petsonk, Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, at the IMPACT Forum. She said that new aircraft and better operations only slow the rate of emissions growth, they don't bend the emissions curve down. What we need to do is break the link between the growth of aviation and the growth of the environmental emissions. Needless to say, this resonates well with us at IMPACT, as our milestone concept is the perfect tool to show progress in decoupling.

The sustainability of aviation is a global issue, not just one for Europe, which is at the forefront of climate action. With this in mind, we want to extend our reach and engage with aviation lenders and investors outside Europe. It's in everyone's interest to create a level playing field and take responsibility.

Last but not least, the IMPACT Forum aims to meet annually to reassess aviation's progress towards net zero and to strengthen collaboration between stakeholders. In the meantime, we need to move forward with the working groups I mentioned earlier. There is a lot of work ahead of us and that is what keeps us motivated.

Thank you for your time Ulrike, and thank you for your continued efforts in this space.