Climate Change News
Below are news items on climate change – many with relevance to aviation
“If Seeing the World Helps Ruin It, Should We Stay Home?”
"The glaciers are melting, the coral reefs are dying, Miami Beach is slowly going under. Quick, says a voice in your head, go see them before they disappear! You are evil, says another voice. For you are hastening their destruction. To a lot of people who like to travel, these are morally bewildering times. Something that seemed like pure escape and adventure has become double-edged, harmful, the epitome of selfish consumption. Going someplace far away, we now know, is the biggest single action a private citizen can take to worsen climate change. One seat on a flight from New York to Los Angeles effectively adds months worth of human-generated carbon emissions to the atmosphere. ... Still, we wonder: How much is that one vacation really hurting anyone, or anything? It is hard to think about climate change in relation to our own behavior. We are small, our effects are microscopically incremental and we mean no harm. The effects of climate change are inconceivably enormous and awful — and for the most part still unrealized. You can’t see the face of the unnamed future person whose coastal village you will have helped submerge." ... See the full article.
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Airlines increasingly worried about polluter stigma as “flygskam” -“flight shame” – movement grows
A Swedish-born anti-flying movement is creating a new vocabulary, from “flygskam” which translates as “flight shame” to “tågskryt,” or “train brag.” Many Swedes have stopped flying. There are similar movements in some other European countries. An activist in this movement, Susanna Elfors in Stockholm says membership on her Facebook group Tagsemester, or “Train Holiday,” has reached some 90,000 members - up from around 3,000 around the end of 2017. She said: “Before, it was rather taboo to discuss train travel due to climate concerns. Now it’s possible to talk about this on a lunch break ... and everybody understands.” People who do not fly are no longer seen as so odd. It is not seen as such a peculiar sacrifice. But the “Flygskam” movement is worrying the aviation industry. At the ATA conference in Seoul, the head of IATA said: “Unchallenged, this sentiment will grow and spread.” That would seriously damage profits. It must be stopped (obviously). The sector wants to get the public to believe it is not a major polluter, and it doing everything possible to emit less carbon. Trouble is, there are no magic fuels on the horizon, and though efficiency gains of 1-2% per year can be made, the sector entirely cancels these out by expansion of 4-5% per year.
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Colm McCarthy: ‘Why it’s time to stop giving aviation and shipping sectors an easy ride on pollution’
Colm McCarthy, writing in the Irish Independent, says it is time aviation was taxed. There is no VAT and no excise duty on jet kerosene. The EU is "coming around to the view that neither aviation nor marine transport should permanently be treated so favourably" ... "A litre of petrol or diesel costs around €1.40 in most European countries, inclusive of both VAT and excise. This is more than double the pre-tax price - more than half what you pay is either VAT or excise. ... Aviation fuel is only 60 or 70 € cent per litre to the airlines." ... " part of the charge on petrol and diesel is for the upkeep of the road system, largely free at the point of use" so airlines would not need to pay that. "But the leaked report for the EU argues that there should be an excise tax of around 33 € cent per litre on jet kerosene, bringing the price up to about €1 per litre. This would add 10-12% to the price of airline tickets." That would cut demand by about 11%. ...If VAT is also imposed, there would be an even bigger price rise and an even bigger impact on demand, inhibiting aviation growth even further."
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Might rationing the amount people fly be the only fair way to restrict use of air travel?
Chief Leader writer at the Observer, Sonia Sodha writes about how she almost cares about climate change, but not enough to give up flying or eating meat etc. A common attitude. She writes, on the measures needed: "It’s naive to think that we can achieve these sorts of lifestyle shifts by imploring people to do more. I already know we’re fast approaching a catastrophic climate tipping point and yet I’m just not very good at forgoing a steak, particularly when I know plenty of others won’t be either." Green taxes, (or sin taxes) tend to "hit the least affluent hardest. It’s people on low incomes who are most sensitive to marginal increases in the cost of their food and flights." ... "I need someone to force me to take my carbon footprint more seriously." ..."Rationing to tackle the climate crisis could be given a modern-day makeover. People could be allocated polluting credits to cover activities such as meat eating and flying that they can sell and buy in an online marketplace. If you’re short of cash, or not that bothered about eating meat or flying abroad, you can ...sell your credits to someone who is, which makes this far more equitable than green taxes." It’s surely an idea whose time has come.
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Extinction Rebellion plans to use drones to shut down Heathrow on 18th June and then for up to 10 days
Extinction Rebellion (XR) demands the Government begins to act on its declaration of a Climate and Environment Emergency by cancelling all Heathrow expansion. On June 18th (start of Heathrow's consultation), XR plan to carry out nonviolent direct action to ensure Heathrow has to close the airport to flights. This is to create a “pause” in recognition of the impact of high carbon activities, such as flying, on the natural world. If the Government does not cancel all Heathrow expansion, XR will act to shut the airport down for up to 10 days from July 1st. XR is consulting its members on the proposed action. They say it is not intended to target the public, but holding the Government to their duty to take leadership on the climate and ecological emergency. Adding the planned 3rd runway would make Heathrow the single biggest carbon emitter in the UK; to expand the airport at this critical point in history would be madness. XR understands the action will cause disruption to a great number of holiday makers and other travellers, but believe it is necessary - given the prospect of far greater disruption caused by ecological and societal collapse. XR say by giving early warning of the disruption, travellers have time to make alternative plans.
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KLM and SkyNRG to open factory to produce “low carbon” jet fuel, mainly from “wastes”
Airlines are desperate to find some form of fuel that they can claim is "low carbon" and that does not have obviously negative environmental and social impacts. Finding these miracle fuels is the only way the industry could continue its rapid growth in fuel burn, for decades to come - in the face of the global climate emergency. Dutch airline KLM is keen to get "sustainable" aviation fuel (SAF), working with SkyNRG. They are hoping to use "regional waste and residue streams such as used cooking oil, coming predominantly from regional industries" as feedstock. A plant is being built, to be opened in 2022, making this fuel. KLM says: "From 2022, the plant will annually produce 100,000 tonnes of SAF .... It will mean a CO2 reduction of 270,000 tonnes a year for the aviation industry." That number all depends on how it is measured - they are regarding this fuel as causing the emission of at least 85% less CO2 than conventional kerosene. (Is that realistic?) KLM says: "There will be absolutely no use of food crops, such as soya oil and palm oil (or by-products such as PFAD and POME), for production." Biofuelwatch has calculated that using all tallow worldwide for biofuels could only supply 1.7% of global aviation fuel burned in 2016. Converting all Used Cooking Oil that can be realistically collected in the EU and USA would meet just 0.16% of US aviation fuel and 0,26% of EU aviation fuel use respectively.
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Should short-haul flights be banned? Climate change is a major issue in elections in Europe and Australia.
"Not long ago, Europe’s young urban residents used to brag about their latest adventures on the other side of the planet, in Asia, Australia or the Pacific. These days, you better be quiet about that, or at least make it clear that you feel a bit conflicted about how you got there. The phenomenon has a name: “flight shame,” or “flygskam,” in Sweden, “flugscham” in German, and “vliegschaamte” in the Netherlands. Amid mass youth protests for more decisive climate action in Europe and around the world, younger people especially have started to examine their own lives — and their roles in driving up emissions." Earlier this year, European travel agencies first started to notice a drop in flight bookings, a development they quickly named the “Greta impact”. The debate over whether to abandon air travel or not — which regularly features on top of European news sites — has now also reached global politics. Ahead of European elections next week, this is becoming an issue. The two main contenders for the role of President of the European Commission have both advocated for finding ways to reduce short-haul aviation. They both agree that Europe’s reliable train network would need to be expanded to make up for a reduction (or even ban) on short-haul flights.
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Netherlands planning to start taxing air travel by around €7 per passenger, from 2021
The Netherlands plans to impose a €7 tax per passenger in 2021 if the EU fails to come up with an aviation fuel tax. Momentum is building for a crack-down on aviation’s environmental impact. The Netherlands' finance state secretary said its draft flight tax bill could yield €200 million and “help close the price gap between plane tickets and, for example, train tickets”. The proposals - still a draft, to be debated by politicians - are that any air passenger departing from a Dutch airport will be charged a maximum of €7.50. Cargo planes will also be charged, at a rate of €1.92 for less noisy planes and €3.85 for more noisy aircraft. At present, unlike travel by car, bus or train, international flights from the Netherlands are not in any way taxed by the Dutch government. There was a tax till it was scrapped in 2009. There has also been a proposal that the Netherlands and Belgium made earlier this year on imposing aviation taxes via bilateral deals - and the Netherlands may look at implementing others. If there is EU agreement on another aviation tax, before 2021, then the current Dutch tax proposal will be dropped. On 13th May a report emerged that showed taxing jet fuel would cut EU CO2 emissions and have a limited impact on employment.
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T&E found the EU sat on data showing benefits of ending airlines’ tax break on jet fuel
A leaked report for the European Commission shows that taxing aviation kerosene sold in Europe, by duty on all departing flights to all destinations of €0.33/litre, would cut aviation emissions by 11% (16.4 MtCO2). It would have no net impact on jobs or the economy as a whole while raising almost €27 billion in revenues every year. Unlike road transport, airlines in Europe have never paid any excise duty on the fuel they take on at EU airports. Airlines are not even taxed on domestic flights where taxation barriers were lifted in 2003. In contrast, jet fuel taken on for domestic aviation has been taxed for many years in countries such as the US, Australia, Japan, Canada and even Saudi Arabia. European member states have, since 2003, had the power to start taxing kerosene uplifted for flights within Europe by using bilateral agreements., but have failed to do so. Over 20 EU states don’t tax international aviation at all (at least the UK has APD). Aviation CO2 emissions grew 4.9% within Europe last year – while emissions from all other industries in the ETS fell 3.9%. CO2 from flying in Europe has soared 26.3% in the last five years – far outstripping any other EU emissions source. With realisation about the reality of climate breakdown, this increase cannot be allowed to continue.
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Climate emergency realisation in UK to cause review of Heathrow expansion – climate change may limit future UK flying
The government (DfT) has admitted that concerns over climate change might restrict the growth of flying in the UK. The government's statutory advisors, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) recently said the UK's planned increase in aviation would need to be curbed to restrict CO2. Now a senior civil servant, Caroline Low (in charge of Heathrow expansion at the DfT) has told Plan B Earth that means ministers may have to review the UK's aviation strategy (due to become a white paper later in 2019). The aviation strategy is currently out to consultation, till 20th June. Plan B says the level of climate concern is so high that the decision on Heathrow expansion - the Airports NPS - should be brought back to Parliament. (It was voted for in June 2018, with carbon issues glossed over so MPs were unaware of the extent of the problem). The DfT hopes expanding Heathrow would create economic growth etc. When the government first laid out proposals for increasing aviation, the UK had an overall target of cutting CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050. But the CCC now recommends that Britain should adopt a target of net zero emissions. Growth of aviation needs to be constrained to fit within a Net Zero target. Caroline Low said the DfT will now have to give aviation carbon emissions "careful consideration" and even look at whether the ANPS should be revised.