Ethiopian airlines pledges to plant nine million trees in a Memorandum of Understanding signed with UN Environment on Wednesday March 21, 2018. The MoU focuses on sustainability in the airline business and as part of ‘Plant one tree for every passenger flown’, 9 million trees will be planted across the country by Ethiopian Airlines.
It was stated that, through the MoU, Ethiopian and the UN Environment are looking for innovativeways in which the airline industry can be combined with a sustainable business outlook, the UN Environment and Ethiopian airlines have forged a partnership that will focus on greening the airline’s  operations.
“We’re delighted to launch one of the first such agreements of its kind, with Ethiopian Airlines really raising the bar on environmental responsibility and green business. This sends a strong, positive message across the aviation sector,” said Erik Solheim, Head of UN Environment.
According to the MoU, other areas of collaboration between UN Environment and Ethiopian include greening Ethiopian Airline business through the provision of training on sustainable consumption and production, integrated waste management, hazardous chemical treatment and capacity development on air quality monitoring.
There are also ideas on developing environmental awareness raising materials for use in- flight entertainment as well as providing support for the Ethiopian Aviation Academy, with the introduction of a course on the UN Environment Sustainable Consumption and a Green Economy Program.
“Because UN environment and Ethiopian Airlines share common goals and objectives, we wish to collaborate in areas of mutual concern,” Juliette Biao, head on UN Environment’s regional office for Africa also stated.
It was further stated that the signed partnership agreement is a milestone towards the United Nation’s partnership with the private sector and the agreement with Ethiopian Airlines should be an example for all African airlines.
The agreement came on the sidelines of the African Civil Aviation Biofuel Summit that was held in Addis Ababa this week.