A hydrogen plane that aims to circle the globe non-stop and with zero emissions is carrying a mission, as well as hope, about sustainability to the youth.
The Swiss explorer Bertrand Piccard, who completed the first round-the-world solar-powered flight and was the first to complete a non-stop balloon flight around the globe, said his latest hydrogen venture is now nearing completion and the first test flights are scheduled for early 2027.
The project, developed through the Solar Impulse Foundation, carries two ambitions. The first is to demonstrate that hydrogen can power a full circumnavigation of the Earth without a single stopover or gram of carbon emissions.
The second is a message of hope for the future. One where flight is enjoyed without causing damage to the planet.
“We want to show young people that there are solutions, that there is a future — but we must now develop the pioneer spirit,” Piccard told Euronews Next.
The explorer said that environmentalism has suffered from its own messaging and that decades of framing ecological action as costly, restrictive and sacrificial has provoked a backlash that allowed economic and political forces to sideline climate concerns.
“Many people have presented ecology as something off-putting, expensive, sacrificial — something that causes the economy to shrink, mobility to shrink,” Piccard said.
“And nobody wants that. With such an uninspiring narrative, it’s clear there has been a backlash.”
He said the solution is not to abandon ecological ambition but to reframe it as a key driver in innovation and prosperity.
The Solar Impulse Foundation organisation has already certified 1,650 clean and profitable solutions as proof that sustainability and economic growth are not in conflict.
“I think we need to cut the head off that narrative but we must not cut the head off ecology in general. Because ecology can be exciting. It can be economically profitable. It can open new markets for companies,” Piccard said.
AI and sustainability
However, since the deployment of generative artificial intelligence in 2022 and the diminishing conversations around sustainability in technology, Piccard drew a sharp distinction between two possible futures.
In one scenario, AI can optimise energy grids and eliminate waste, but in the other, it powers unnecessary applications, which he noted as faster video streaming and higher-resolution gaming.
He warned the latter would demand vast new data centres and erase any environmental gains.
“All the positive impact we could have on the environment may be completely short-circuited by unnecessary uses, poorly implemented, with polluting technologies,” Piccard said.
On data centres, which power AI, he said how they are built and cooled is a test case for AI’s environmental footprint. Cooling servers with air conditioning or river water wastes enormous energy, but channelling that heat waste to warm nearby cities would use the same energy twice and cut costs and emissions at once.
But the decision on how AI is used is ultimately up to humanity.
“It’s not AI that is good or bad — it’s the user who will be wise or dangerous. What will humanity do with it?” he said.
As for who navigates the direction for AI, Piccard said it should be governments and not tech companies, adding that Europe should and can hold its nerve despite pressure from trading partners.
“Tech enthusiasts will always go too far, because their goal is technology — not the quality of life of humanity,” he said.
“Those who are responsible for that are governments, institutions, NGOs. They must make their voices heard louder than the tech enthusiasts.”
Getting the message across
Getting the green message across to the younger people is underway.
A partnership with the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco positions the country as a gateway to students across Africa, Piccard explained. Once airborne, he plans to speak to schoolchildren live from the cockpit as the plane circles the Earth.
“If one morning we say we want to speak to all the schools, nobody will answer,” he explained.
“If we say we’re going to speak to students from the cockpit of a plane circling the world on hydrogen — all the doors will open.”
The project around the world is ultimately putting the issues to the next generation.
“Do you want to be a pioneer — someone who hopes they can achieve something different? Or do you want to be a dinosaur, trying to live off the past, and disappearing?” he said.