Airbus in support of World Environment Day

Airbus is working with the National Geographic Society and the UNEP Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to launch a world-reaching biodiversity communication campaign, 'See the Bigger Picture' as part of today's World Environment Day.

With combined commitment, the three partners aim to stimulate and raise awareness on biodiversity among young people, families and educators worldwide. The campaign comes in the run-up to the International Year of Biodiversity in 2010.

Airbus signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the CBD Secretariat – part of the United Nations Environment Programme – last July, to join forces and support The Green Wave, a worldwide educational initiative raising awareness on the importance of biodiversity.

“See the Bigger Picture” calls on children and young people to illustrate the diversity of nature around them and to consider their role in conserving it via a worldwide photo contest. The contest encourages the world’s youth to step outside, explore the variety of life and take a picture of what biodiversity means to them. Uploading it to www.seethebiggerpicture.org will give them the unique opportunity to share their biodiversity experience with people from all over the world. The five best pictures will be rewarded with a trip to Washington, D.C., visiting, amongst other places, National Geographic’s headquarters.

The loss of biodiversity and climate change are some of today’s main environmental challenges. Airbus says it is fully committed to tackle aviation’s 2% contribution to man-made CO2 emissions. However, the European manufacturer says there are major sources of emissions and environmental threats that lie beyond the aviation industry. Deforestation accounts for 17% of global greenhouse emissions and is thus one of the main causes for climate change and reason for the continuing loss of biodiversity.

Tom Enders, CEO and President of Airbus says: “In the future, aviation's licence to grow will also depend on the industry's contribution to raise awareness of the facts, realities and challenges in the field of environmental changes. We must be seen as what we are: a contributor to the solution, not to the problem. This is why we join forces with the UNEP/CBD and National Geographic to support the United Nation's mission on biodiversity with the ‘See the Bigger Picture’ campaign.”

The campaign will be featured in the various language editions of National Geographic magazine, National Geographic Kids magazine and the National Geographic Channel. Benefiting from the far-reaching distribution channels of the National Geographic Society, one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world, “See the Bigger Picture” has a potential reach of over 260 million people in more than 190 countries.