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Bertrand Piccard is no stranger to achieving the improbable. In 1999, the Swiss aviator and his copilot Brian Jones were the first to circumnavigate the globe in a hot-air balloon. In 2016, he did it again, flying around the world (this time alongside copilot André Borschberg) in the solar-powered aircraft Solar Impulse 2, breaking records for sustainably powered flight, and capturing the imaginations of millions of fans around the world.
“Each time I hear skeptical people say, ‘There’s no way forward, you need to de-grow, you need to ban aviation,’ I’m thinking ‘Wow, that’s truly the thinking of the past,’” Piccard says. “Let’s go into the future. Let’s implement solutions. Let’s push the limits further.”
The Piccard name is hallowed in the worlds of aviation and exploration. In 1931, Piccard’s grandfather, Auguste, was the first person to fly into the stratosphere in a balloon; his father, Jacques, was the first man to explore the deepest point in the ocean, the Pacific’s Mariana Trench. (There’s a reason Star Trek’s iconic captain Jean-Luc has the last name Piccard.) “I have always understood through all my life, my family history, and also the people whom I met when I was a child—astronauts, explorers, divers, mountain climbers—how much more interesting it is to explore, to embrace the unknown, to discover new ways of thinking,” Piccard says. “And they always hated the status quo. I hate when you don't move forward when we should move forward.”
In February 2024, Piccard unveiled the latest dazzling feat to be attempted in the Piccard name. In 2028, Piccard hopes to fly around the world once again—this time, nonstop—using a brand-new, cutting-edge hydrogen-powered aircraft, titled Climate Impulse.
Piccard had originally hoped to use hydrogen—an energy-dense gas, which can be made sustainably with renewable energy—to power his Solar Impulse back in the early aughts. But at the time, the technology wasn’t ready. “The yield was not enough, the weight was too much, and we would have needed many more solar panels. So, we went with batteries.”
But that was nearly two decades ago, and technology and composite materials have advanced. Before announcing Climate Impulse, Piccard and his co-pilot Raphael Dinneli spent two years doing feasibility studies on whether a full around-the-world trip was even physically possible on current technologies. Their conclusion? “[It] is not a problem anymore.”
The futuristic concept art for the Climate Impulse looks very different from your typical plane. “This plane will basically be built around the hydrogen tanks,” he explains. “Hydrogen has a very good energy value, but the [necessary] volume is quite big.” The biggest challenge is carrying enough fuel for a flight predicted to last nine days and nights. “We take all the hydrogen in the beginning at take-off, and keep it liquid at minus 253 degrees Celsius, which is very close to the absolute zero. The big challenge is to make hydrogen tanks that are insulated enough to keep this hydrogen liquid at minus 253 for nine days.”
As with Solar Impulse, Piccard plans to use the nine-day flight to talk to schools, governments, and the public about sustainability—as well as to use the project as inspiration and impetus for the wider aviation industry to take serious action on climate change. By then he’ll be 70. Still, he says, the thought of soaring over continents and oceans, while inspiring generations to save the planet, is more than enough to stave off the discomfort of nine days in a cramped cabin. “It has to be the ultimate flight, if you want to show that you can decarbonize aviation,” Piccard says. “The goal is not to fly 100 kilometers. The goal is to fly 40,000 kilometers all the way around the world, and really shake the spirit.”
In the meantime, Piccard is focused on his other roles—including as a member of the Zayed Sustainability Prize Selection Committee. Established in 2008, the Prize awards $1 million to SMEs and nonprofit organizations for sustainable innovations in the categories of health, food, energy, water, and climate action. There’s also a $150,000 award for each of six schools from around the world for project proposals with the potential to make a meaningful difference in their communities.
“I’ve been in relation with Abu Dhabi, and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, since 2002, after my first balloon flight around the world, and I got the support of the [UAE] government for the Solar Impulse project. So, when the Prize asked me to be on their Selection Committee, I accepted immediately,” Piccard explains. Solar Impulse took off and landed in the UAE. “I think the power of the Zayed Sustainability Prize is to not only give the winners money, but to promote and help to scale very concrete and practical solutions. [The winner] is not just an idea. It's a technical solution that exists, something that can really help a lot of people.”
The Prize is open for entries, with a deadline of June 23, 2024; the winners will be announced at the Zayed Sustainability Prize Awards Ceremony in Abu Dhabi on January 13, 2025.
For Piccard, the Zayed Sustainability Prize has a lot in common with Climate Impulse, and his previous record-setting efforts. “You need a narrative that brings people together,” he says. “But if you only have the story, or the dream of protecting the environment, you will not be understood by investors, by the financial world. You need to be ecological—yes, of course—but you need to be economically profitable. You need to bring efficiencies that allow people to do better, with less consumption of resources or energy.” This, for Piccard, is the great dream of sustainability: doing more, with less. Not giving up flying, but flying nonstop around the world, powered by green energy.
“There are still so many people who are skeptical about climate action, skeptical about decarbonization, they believe that it will be impossible, they believe that there is no solution. I want to show there are solutions, I want to show the power of the pioneering spirit. I want to show how we can open the way to a better future.”
