Airbus // Universal Registration Document 2023

1. Information on the Company’s Activities 1.2 Non-Financial Information

allied capabilities adaptation in the context of climate change. This is supported by inputs from the NATO Climate and Defence Task Force lead by the Conference of National Armaments Directors (CNAD) the Company is also part of, together with the allied governments and other defence industry players. This collaboration aims at assessing, elaborating and deploying solutions to ensure technical capabilities still enable operational effectiveness in facing changing climatic conditions. Products and services supporting climate monitoring and adaptation Climate change-related disasters are set to become more intense and frequent. This will require immediate action from rescue teams for whom the Company’s products play an important role. For instance, the Company’s helicopters are used by public authorities around the world in missions linked to disaster risk management, including medical evacuation, search and rescue or firefighting operations. In 2022, around 20% of delivered helicopters were equipped for such missions. The Company’s military aircraft platforms can play a crucial role in the protection of populations from natural disasters, such as for example during the aftermath of the fires at La Palma in Spain in July 2023, when an A400M urgently transported personnel and vehicles of the Spanish Military Emergency Unit. In December 2023, a new version of the A400M Roll-on/Roll-off firefighting prototype kit was successfully tested. It is improving dropping efficiency and reducing discharge time by over 30% compared to last year, while combined with rapid deployment and easy installation on the A400M aircraft. The Company’s fully solar-powered Unmanned Air System (UAS), Aalto Zephyr, is able to fly for an extremely long time – 64 days nonstop is the current record with plans to fly for months at a time. Combining the persistence of a geostationary satellite with the manoeuvrability of a traditional aircraft, Aalto Zephyr can provide communications services to remote areas or be used for land, coastal or border protection, wildfire monitoring, crop monitoring, land administration or environmental monitoring. The Company’s space products also play an important role in the understanding of climate phenomenon and monitoring of their evolution. Today, 20 of the Company’s satellites are involved in climate change monitoring and an additional 20 are in development. As climate adaptation entails preparing for natural disasters, this critical geospatial data enables the Company to deliver data that helps governments and humanitarian agencies predict and manage disasters. Earth-observation satellites allow the monitoring of deforestation, rising sea levels and greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. The Company is involved in all major environment-monitoring satellite programmes in Europe (Copernicus, Living Planet) and plays a key role in all 12 of the Copernicus missions, the EU’s Earth Observation Programme. For instance, Sentinel-6 is part of the EU’s Copernicus programme and was built by the Company as prime contractor. It maps the ocean’s surface, measuring global sea level rises and ocean circulation. Sentinel-6 data helps governments and institutions to establish effective protection for coastal regions, and helps scientists improve weather forecasts and hurricane predictions.

The CryoSat-2 is an environmental research satellite that provides scientists with data about the polar ice caps and tracks changes in the thickness of the ice. It was constructed by the Company (EADS Astrium). Polar-orbiting Earth observation satellites can perform short-term weather forecasting and long-term climate monitoring, such as detecting storm movements and developments, cloud systems, snow cover, and ice mapping. There are currently two MetOp-SG polar-orbiting satellites (A and B) being developed and built under the industrial lead of the Company, scheduled to be launched in 2025. Furthermore, GRACE Follow-On (GRACE-FO), a twin satellite developed and built by the Company, monitors changes in underground water storage, the amount of water in large lakes and rivers, soil moisture, ice sheets and glaciers, and sea levels. In 2023, the Company has progressed on the development and testing of new technologies that will be featured on biomass, the first ever satellite that will report how much CO 2 is captured by the world’s forests. The spacecraft will deliver accurate maps of tropical, temperate and boreal forest biomass and changes in the biomass stock that are not obtainable by ground measurement techniques. In arid areas of the planet, it will see through to the underlying bedrock, enabling mapping of the rock structure and search for subterranean reservoirs of water. The satellite is currently in Toulouse for final testing ahead of its expected launch in 2024. Upcoming missions also include EarthCARE, monitoring the impact of clouds and tiny atmospheric particles (aerosols) on atmospheric radiation; Merlin, studying greenhouse gases and global warming; and Microcarb, measuring CO 2 levels. The Company’s satellite-based services Farmstar, co-developed with Arvalis Institut du Végétal with the support of Terre-Inovia, help support a more sustainable agriculture. It provides a complete range of advice for wheat, barley, rapeseed and rapeseed companion plants at intra-field scale, all aligned with the crop cycle. This minimises farming impact on the environment by using only what the plant really needs. 700,000 hectares are currently monitored in France, for 14,000 farmers. The Company’s Pléiades Neo constellation delivers precision insights to help farmers cultivate their fields more sustainably in the context of a changing climate. Pléiades Neo’s Red Edge band makes it possible to accurately predict and pinpoint subtle stress situations in crops long before the problem can be detected with conventional vegetation indices or even the human eye. This information will allow farmers to assess the root cause of the problem and take remedial action before the ailment spreads or crops are lost, enabling more effective climate adaptation. The Starling digital platform, developed by the Company with the non-profit Earthworm Foundation, uses a combination of forest cover change analytics and satellite imagery to support agro-forestry businesses, public institutions, local authorities, NGOs, academics and research. Starling can show 20 years of historical data and trends and currently covers more than 5.8 million km 2 . Since 2016, Starling has generated more than 2 million alerts and utilised more than 180,000 images.

90 Airbus Annual Report

Universal Registration Document 2023