Climate Change News
Below are news items on climate change – many with relevance to aviation
Scottish Climate Assembly – many recommendations to cut aviation carbon emissions
The Scottish Climate Assembly reported its recommendations for action on 23rd June. The Assembly included over 100 ordinary members of society, and met from November 2020 to March 2021, online for 7 weekends. Their recommendations relating to aviation include that Scotland should: "Lead the way in minimising the carbon emissions caused by necessary travel and transport by investing in the exploration and early adoption of alternative fuel sources across all travel modes." 93% agreed. And "Commit to working to decarbonise all internal flights within Scotland by 2025." 87% agreed. And "...requiring transport providers to declare the carbon impact of flights and train journeys in a clear and meaningful way at the time of booking." 94% agreed. And "Reduce the incentives to fly by introducing tax on high carbon aviation fuels and making it mandatory that this cost is passed on to the customer in their ticket price." And "Discourage air travel by introducing a frequent flyer tax or levy." 78% agreed. And "Eliminate frequent flyer and air mile bonuses to reduce the number of flights taken for business, encouraging the use of alternatives like video conferencing for meetings." 92% agreed.
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Legality of £27bn roads building programme in question due to climate targets
The legality of the government’s second Road Investment Strategy (RIS2) is to be determined by the High Court. Campaigners from Transport Action Network (TAN) say transport secretary Grant Shapps broke the law when approving the £27.4bn road strategy, by failing to consider its effects on the environment. The RIS2 is for road upgrades between 2020 and […]
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Climate Change Committee progress report to UK Government – aviation carbon policies sadly lacking
The Climate Change Committee has published its 2021 Progress Report to parliament, on the UK's actions on climate change. It says "The Prime Minister’s Ten-Point Plan was an important statement of ambition, but it has yet to be backed with firm policies." The report says the government has still not produced its Decarbonisation Strategy, which had been due in 2020. The CCC says government should "Commit to a Net Zero goal and pathway for UK aviation as part of the forthcoming Aviation Decarbonisation Strategy, with UK international aviation reaching Net Zero emissions by 2050 at the latest, and domestic aviation potentially earlier." It says government should assess its "airport capacity strategy in the context of Net Zero and any lasting impacts on demand from COVID-19, as part of the aviation strategy. There should be no net expansion of UK airport capacity unless the sector is on track to sufficiently outperform its net emissions trajectory and can accommodate the additional demand. A demand management framework will need to be developed (by 2022) and be in place by the mid-2020s to annually assess and, if required, control sector GHG emissions and non-CO2 effects." Lack of demand management would mean the sector missing its targets. And more ...
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Airport expansion plans looking less likely due to Covid and climate awareness
UK airports continue to do badly, due to the pandemic and travel restrictions, and it is anticipated that they could lose £2.6bn between April and September, if Covid continues to limit travel. The industry is also, unwillingly, having to consider their role in worsening climate breakdown, and whether it is acceptable for the sector to be expanding. “Many investors and fund managers could question in future whether airports sit well within their portfolios". Only Gatwick, which is 50.01% per cent owned by Vinci, has made use of the Bank of England’s Covid corporate financing facility, for temporary grants and loans. Most airport owners have pared down their operations, staffing and costs, and cut dividends, to save money. Lenders are appreciating that the airports have huge financial problems, that they cannot solve while Covid continues to limit air travel. But the FT says there will be limits to the goodwill by lenders, as it is no longer certain that airports will remain a safe investment, generating predictable and high income streams - or be acceptable ethically. Now ACI warned of a “severe airport investment crunch” in Europe as it had to take on more than €20 billion of additional debt last year. That makes expansion plans look doubtful.
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easyJet criticised for launching 12 new UK routes, some easily linked by train
EasyJet has launched 12 new domestic UK flying routes on Thursday, to take advantage of the bans on foreign travel. Anything to make some money and get people flying, despite needlessly increasing carbon emissions. Some of the routes could easily be travelled by train, in a reasonable time. However, the flights will be cheaper (fares like £23 for a 200 mile journey) than train tickets, especially as the government wants to remove Air Passenger Duty for domestic flights, making them still cheaper in relation to rail tickets. The move by easyJet has been criticised by environmental campaigners, due to the increased greenhouse gas emissions. Some of the new routes were served by other airlines, including Stobart Air, which recently collapsed. The UK government, while claiming to be serious about reducing the country's CO2 emissions, is in sharp contrast with France, which is banning flights where a train journey is available that takes less than 2.5 hours. Support for unnecessarily polluting airlines will further undermine our credibility at the COP26. Though many of the new EasyJet routes are to/from Belfast, or Aberdeen or Jersey, others are within the UK land area, and viable rail routes.
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New report details big polluters’ next Big Con – exposé of “net-zero” pledges
The aviation sector, along with many other sectors, governments and organisations are keen to make pledges about how they are working towards "net zero". This gives the impression that they are working hard to cut their carbon emissions, and by some future date (conveniently far into the future) they will be causing almost no extra CO2 to enter the atmosphere. However, the realisation is now dawning that these pledges to be "zero carbon" actually mean either that the sector will buy carbon permits from others that actually cut carbon; or they depend on the unlikely scenario by which vast amount of carbon will be sucked out the air, either by vegetation or technologies that do not yet exist. Over dependence on hoping carbon will be cancelled out by offsets or carbon removal have the effect of letting an industry continue pretty much with "business as usual" for the time being. Somehow, the next generation will sort out the problem and get the carbon removed. A new report from Friends of the Earth International, “The Big Con: How Big Polluters are advancing a “net zero” climate agenda to delay, deceive, and deny,” casts light on some of the carbon pledges, finding grossly ineffective plans.
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Southampton legal challenge against airport decision by Eastleigh Borough Council
The local campaign against the expansion of Southampton airport, AXO, has now decided to make a legal challenge against Eastleigh Borough Council, and their decision to allow extension of the runway. That extension would have the effect of increasing the number of flights using the airport, and allow flights to more distant destinations - increasing the overall carbon emissions. Decisions such as these, resulting in more climate heating, need full scrutiny and that can now only happen by Judicial Review. The opponents of Southampton Airport expansion have instructed a legal team led by Leigh Day and David Wolfe QC to pursue the case, and are launching a public appeal for money to help finance the action. AXO believe strongly that the council’s decision was wrong both in the way it was taken and the arguments to justify it. The airport has greatly overstated the economic benefits of expansion, which will adversely affect the quality of lives of around 46,000 residents, whilst hugely underplaying the environmental impact. Hence they are calling for the decision to undergo independent scrutiny. There is a crowdfunder, to raise £10,000, to help pay the legal costs.
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Heathrow’s Matt Gorman awarded MBE for ? reducing airport’s carbon emissions?
Matt Gorman, who has been Heathrow’s “Sustainability Director” for years, and is now its “Carbon Strategy Director” has been awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, for his work in cutting the airport’s carbon emissions. He has not, of course, reduced the emissions of the planes using Heathrow. Far from it, he has been […]
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Airbus tells the EU hydrogen won’t be widely used in planes before 2050
Airbus has told the EU that most commercial planes will rely on traditional jet engines until at least 2050. They say they plan to develop the world's first zero-emission commercial aircraft by 2035, but have not publicly said whether the technology will be ready for the replacement for the medium-haul A320, due to be rolled out in the 2030s. That seems unlikely, especially for long or medium haul flights. In its presentation to the EC, Airbus did not give details of its hydrogen technology, and how it could be introduced into small, short haul aircraft. The technology is very much still on the drawing board. Although research remains at an early stage, possible paths to replacement of the A320 are already a major focus of debate as rival Boeing ponders how to get lower carbon emissions from the competing 737 MAX and engine makers focus on evolving gas turbines. Boeing's Chief Executive has said they will not be flying planes on hydrogen on a significant scale before 2050. A key problem for using hydrogen in future is the infrastructure needed globally to support it, as well as ensuring hydrogen is "green", ie. made only from genuinely renewably sourced surplus electricity. In the meantime, airlines want to use "sustainable aviation fuel" (SAF), hoping some can be genuinely low carbon.
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European airlines lobbying against tighter EU rules to reduce CO2 emissions
European airlines are fighting tougher CO2 emissions rules under the EU’s long-awaited climate package, according to documents obtained by environmental group, Influence Map through FoI. The documents show that airlines and industry bodies have been lobbying against stricter European Commission rules for the sector under the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS). They do not want new taxes for the fossil fuels they burn, and say they cannot pay more after the damage the sector has suffered due to Covid. The EU has been trying to introduce measures to enable the block to cut its emissions by 55% by 2030, from their 1990 level. The airlines have vague aspirations to be "carbon neutral" by 2050 (while growing numbers of passengers and flights) by use of novel, so called "sustainable" fuels - and new technologies such as use of hydrogen and electric-powered aircraft, which are unlikely to make much difference for decades, if ever. Also the use of offsets, which don't actually cut carbon. Industry group Airlines for Europe in October oppose a proposed tax on kerosene for flights within the EU, arguing that carriers would fill up in third countries. They do not want the phasing out of free airline credits, and are not happy that - at last - the cost of carbon permits has risen to a level that makes some sense.