Governments have a big role to play in helping aviation reduce its emissions
From funding research into new technology to shortening routes to optimising air navigation infrastructure, governments are vital partners for the industry. However, individual government action is rarely enough: aviation is a global industry and climate change is a global problem.
Governments must therefore cooperate to find solutions for aviation. The primary body for this is the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), an intergovernmental United Nations body that sets global rules for aviation. But all too often governments legislate on a national or regional basis leading to a lack of harmonisation and coordination on this key issue.
Government co-operation on an international scale is critical in helping achieve environmental aims in aviation. The European Union and United Nations have multiple, cross-industry initiatives underway.
Government focus on economic measures
Government policy and legislation relating to environmentally friendly air travel is mostly focused on emissions trading and other economic measures, such as taxation. Some current examples include:
• The European Union will include aviation in its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) from 2012. Airlines will be set a cap (97% of the average of their annual 2004-2006 emissions in 2012 and 95% from 2013) and if they want to emit more than the cap they will have to purchase allowances from other industries that have managed to reduce emissions and therefore have surplus allowances to sell. Airlines will have to purchase 15% of their allowances at auction in 2012. There are concerns that the EU ETS will lead to “carbon leakage” whereby long haul airlines may choose to “hub” outside the EU. In addition some governments are questioning the right of the EU to impose charges on CO2 emitted outside EU airspace.
• The Netherlands Government introduced a departure tax on 1 July 2008. This tax required air passengers to pay up to €45 per ticket depending on class and distance travelled. The tax was expected to raise around €350 million per year. Evidence showed that a significant number of passengers were seeking cheaper air travel alternatives in neighbouring Belgium and Germany. However, the tax was withdrawn on 30 June 2009, just one year after its introduction, as part of the Dutch Cabinet’s Stimulus package.
• The United Kingdom doubled the UK’s Air Passenger Duty (charged for each passenger on a flight) in 2007, increasing the total tax take to £2 billion annually. In July 2008 the UK Government admitted that since APD was doubled, aviation would meet its climate change costs with £0.1 billion to spare. In spite of this the UK will introduce a revised tax, Aviation Duty, in November 2009 that will raise £3.1 billion in its first full year of operation. None of the revenues from APD or Aviation Duty go back into environmental measures or fund new technology for aviation.
None of the revenues from APD or Aviation Duty go back into environmental measures or fund new technology for aviation.
More emphasis needed on research and development
The air transport industry believes that taxes and charges do little for the environment. The revenue raised rarely goes back into environmental measures and simply takes money out of the industry that could be used for research and development into more fuel-efficient technology. Rather, governments should be focusing on positive economic measures such as incentives for using more fuel-efficient aircraft and funding for research and development. There are some initiatives along these lines:
• The EU’s "Clean Sky" Joint Technology Initiative will develop breakthrough technologies to significantly improve the impact of air transport on the environment. The funding of €1.6 billion over 7 years aims to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 by 50%, NOx by 80% and noise by 50% as well as developing a green product lifecycle.
• In the USA NASA's National Plan for Aeronautics Research and Development aims to reduce fuel consumption, explore alternative fuels and research technologies and operational procedures for energy efficiency, noise and emissions reduction.
• SESAR (Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research), is the European Union’s €30 billion air traffic management modernisation programme. The current patchwork of 35 air traffic control organisations that are based largely on national borders will be replaced by “functional airspace blocks” based on operational requirements – in particular traffic flows. The European Commission estimates that implementation of SESAR could save 16 million tonnes of CO2 a year through more efficient air traffic control, shorter routings and fewer delays.
• NextGen is a wide ranging transformation of the entire US air traffic control system, comparable to SESAR in Europe. It will replace ground-based technologies with new and more dynamic satellite based technology. The environmental benefits will be similar to those of SESAR.
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