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NEWS / DECEMBER 2009 / CLIMATE CHANGE COMMITTEE REPORTS ON AVIATION GROWTH
Lord Turner, Chairman of the Committee on Climate Change
The Committee on Climate Change have published their report on aviation emissions and growth in the UK.
The report concluded that the industry can still grow by 60% and meet the target of maintaining aviation’s CO2 emissions at 2005 levels by 2050.
The Financial Times reported that the Committee rejected suggestions that limits on carbon dioxide emissions would mean cuts in air travel.
Jill Brady, chair of Sustainable Aviation, the leading environmental body for the UK aviation industry, said: “The past 50 years have seen a 70 per cent improvement in aircraft fuel efficiency, in which the UK is a world leader, and technology will play a central role in achieving further substantial improvements over the next 40.”
The report was also covered by the Daily Telegraph, who noted that the Government accepted that the number of passengers could not be allowed to increase by more than 60 per cent if the aviation industry made greater progress on cutting aircraft emissions than currently predicted by the Committee.
OUR REACTION
Rt Hon Brian Wilson
commenting on
Climate Change Committee reports on aviation growth
As Sustainable Aviation commented, the best route to a fully sustainable aviation industry is by cutting emissions, not cutting demand or access to flying.
The Committee have set the industry a long-term challenge and it is one that the industry is confident it can meet and even go beyond - the Sustainable Aviation Road Map, published in 2008, shows how this can be achieved.
The Committee has told the Government that increased taxes may be necessary to curb emissions if technology does not progress sufficiently quickly by 2050. However, the most effective way to pay for, and incentivise the reduction of, aviation emissions is through a global emissions trading scheme – the whole industry supports this approach and hopes that agreement on this can be achieved at Copenhagen in December.
The worst way to approach this issue is through unilateral action to stop people flying using tax, such as Air Passenger Duty, which simply penalises ordinary families who only fly occasionally and is, in any case, environmentally ineffective since none of the revenue goes towards improving environmental performance.
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FlyingMatters reaction to public attitudes to air travel and the environment survey
Reacting to statistics published by the Department for Transport on attitudes to air travel and the environment, showing that the proportion of people willing to pay extra fell from 69% in 2006 to 60% in 2010 among those who do believe that air travel harms the environment and from 50% to 40% among those who have flown in the last 12 months, Brian Wilson, Chairman of FlyingMatters said: "Just as the public's appetite for paying more for flying is waning, the Government plan to push ahead with eye-watering rises in the tax on flying so that from November a family of four will pay up to £340 in tax alone. This will push flying out of the reach of many ordinary families who only fly occasionally."
