2009: Year of the Unveiling

Two thousand and nine is a major milestone of the Solar Impulse project; it’s the year HB-SIA was first unveiled to the public. Early in the year, the first structural tests were completed and the aircraft was finally assembled. After the prototype’s initial public appearance, runway tests were undertaken in Dübendorf climaxing with the aircraft’s first flea hop, a proof of its ability to fly.

January

• January 8: Ultrasound tests undertaken on the wing spar. Air bubbles found trapped in the glue and the team of engineers decided to repair it.

February

• 26 February: All structural tests completed and parts ready for assembly.

June

• 4 June: Four engines running for the first time getting a step closer to the unveiling.
• 18 June: Swisscom becomes a Solar Impulse Official Partner.
• 26 June: Unveiling of HB-SIA.

November

• 6 November: First roll-out of HB-SIA and first runway tests of the aircraft.

December

• 3 December: HB-SIA’s first flea hop at the Dübendorf airfield proving the capacity of the aircraft to lift itself off the ground.

But I have had an opportunity to study the draft agreement. It lacks ambition, but this was to be expected. For me it also contains two surprises:

1) It speaks of course of the danger of CO2 emissions. But not a line on the dangers of their origin, that is our aberrant dependence on fossil fuels. Even without climate change, it is urgent to apply those technologies that allow us to do without oil. Its increasing rarity, and price rises that will inevitably ensue, will destroy our industrial and economic system well before the Maldives Islands have disappeared under rising sea levels.

2) There is more talk of financial assistance to poor countries than of solutions to reduce CO2 emissions. This is not a bad thing in itself, as our planet will never be a safe place if we leave half of its population trailing behind the rest of us. But one does get the impression that this item ought to be accompanying the concrete measures to combat climate change and not replacing them in the negotiations. But fair enough in such a context: after neglecting them, and at times slapping them in the face, the Third World countries are becoming essential partners in the search for a global solution.

And if, with the 100 billion we are planning to pay to them, the rich countries were to add a few apologies for polluting the planet whilst the poorest countries did not even have the wherewithal to do so. This will never happen, but it does one good to write it.

It's a miracle that's needed. Just a few hours to the end of the Summit and heads of state are taking the rostrum to repeat one after another, with a few exceptions, the same banalities heard too many times already. Alongside them, the delegations of legal experts and negotiators, lacking any ambitious overall vision, are fighting over questions of procedure and wording. One of the few to rise above the pack was Nicolas Sarkozy, who called on other heads of state to spend the night negotiating directly among themselves, rather than continue on a path doomed to failure.

If this message is short, I tell you it's too long for what happened today!

The heads of state will now be taking the floor one after the other, and no one yet knows whether they will be able to drag the discussion out of the present chaos. Demonstrators are blocking the entrance to the conference centre and militant ecologists are lying in the corridors and promising not to move until an agreement is signed. Will this push governments to act or will it just make them less willing to give ground? The more so as competing agreement projects are doing the rounds, creating a climate of conspiracy for certain countries.

And as it's all a question of creating the right climate...

The movement has come a long way since then, and such disguises would look very out of place at the Copenhagen Summit. Of course you can still find them there, but more to amuse and entertain than strike fear. The real discussions are ultimately at another level. Less and less green and more and more clean. The question is no longer whether we need to act or not, but how to act, what technologies to use and of course and in particular how to finance them.

The main impression coming out of the Summit is that everyone has come knowing that it is now or never time to save the Earth, or at least our present way of life.

The Conference President spoke of a unique opportunity which will probably not present itself again for a long time. If Copenhagen is a success, the negotiators will be heroes for future generations; if it is a failure, they will be the shame of humanity.

Will they take the risk of being tomorrow's penguins?

News to liven up the 14-hour journey, even if our solar aircraft would certainly have taken as long to travel the same distance.

Here everyone is agreed on just how serious climate change and how urgent it is to react. The ranks of the climate-sceptics, those who take a contrary stance in order to grab attention to themselves, are thinning fast. But we are still talking too much about problems and not enough about solutions. Even though with those that already exist we can halve our consumption of fossil fuels. The Danish capital has stated that it can be carbon neutral' within a few years. Another misunderstanding is the cost that countries will have to pay to avoid climate disaster. We should rather be talking about investment, because all the technologies we will need to implement are profitable, and probably even offer the best way of saving our aging economic and industrial system.

Solar Impulse is of course not the main dish on the menu at Copenhagen, but it certainly adds spice to the discussions.