Emissions Up in the Air
The Qantas chairman and former mining executive Leigh Clifford has doubts about Australia rushing emissions legislation through prior to an international summit later this year, while the head of IATA says the most important outcome from Copenhagen will be agreement to treat aviation as a sector under the leadership of ICAO and working with industry to effect real reductions in CO2 from airlines.
Steve Creedy, Aviation writer in The Australian (23 October 2009):
QANTAS chairman Leigh Clifford has warned that speculators will be lining up to take advantage of the planned emissions trading system and travellers will end up bearing the brunt of the impact on the aviation industry.
Mr Clifford said only the naive would not imagine that “some clever people” would be focused on the trading aspect of the ETS, as opposed to the carbon reduction aspect.
He said industry wanted certainty and clarity about the cost of carbon, but the potential existed for it to jump around quite considerably.
“Some clever people are going to be focused on what to do about this — salivating, in fact,” he said.
The Qantas chairman and former mining executive has doubts about rushing legislation through prior to an international summit in Copenhagen later this year.
He said it was not enough to be aware of what was happening in the EU. Australia also needed to know what was happening in countries such as China and the US.
“No one’s been able to convince me as to why we need all this all buttoned up when we go into Copenhagen,” he said.
“The community as a whole said we ought to do something and, for better or worse, it’s been decided that emissions trading ought to be the way.
“All I would say is my personal view is we need to think carefully about how we do this and we ought to be cognisant of what others are doing.”
He was also not sure that the public understood the impact an ETS would have on airlines.
“I’d have to say that I’m not sure that the public at large understands that when you go through and put a price on carbon for the understandable reasons we’re trying to do that — someone’s going to have to pay for that,” he said.
Although people talked about the contribution to climate change of airlines, Mr Clifford said airlines were essential in Australia for moving people efficiently, both internationally and domestically.
He said Qantas’s focus was on energy efficiency, looking at both the way it flew planes and buying new, more-efficient aircraft. This included improved energy efficiency per passenger from new aircraft such as the Airbus A380 and the Boeing 787.
“We are doing our bit,” he said. “As an industry we’re looking at biofuels, algae, etc, but you know these are long-term issues.
“And we are investing in very fuel-efficient planes, not withstanding our depreciation schedules are different compared with some overseas airlines.”
Mr Clifford also echoed calls by chief executive Alan Joyce for improvements in the efficiency of the air navigation system.
This was not just important in Australia but also in Europe and North America, so there was not excessive travel time between point to point, and meant that governments needed to invest in the system.
While he did not want to be drawn into an argument on the differences between government and opposition views on the ETS, he believed it was absurd that a price would be placed on carbon on a Perth-Melbourne flight, but not on one between Perth and Bali.
Source: www.theaustralian.news.com.au
Date: 23 October 2009
Global Sectoral Approach – A Global Framework for Aviation and Climate Change
New Delhi – The International Air Transport Association (IATA) reiterated its call for a global sectoral approach led by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to handle aviation’s emissions in the post-Kyoto period.
“We need a global solution that can encompass all of aviation—incorporating the differing situations of airlines from developed and developing nations. The best hope of this is through ICAO which has a proven track record,” said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and CEO.
In a speech to an event jointly hosted by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and IATA, Bisignani referred specifically to the effective work of ICAO in handling the introduction of quieter aircraft. “ICAO developed a global framework to deal with noise. The noisiest aircraft were phased out between 1995 and 2002. The global solution took into account the difficult situation of some developing nations with an extension to 2005,” said Bisignani.
The remarks are particularly timely as the global climate change debate is increasingly stalled on the principle of common but differentiated responsibility that underpins the United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change in the run-up to climate talks in Copenhagen this December.
At the recent ICAO High Level Meeting on Aviation and Climate Change, governments agreed to continue to address aviation and climate change through ICAO and to work closely with industry. They also laid the foundations to developing a global sectoral approach—a global framework developed through ICAO.
IATA defines such a sectoral approach as:
“Such a global approach would take advantage of the aviation sector’s proactive approach to addressing the issues of climate change. We are the only industry with a united strategy and targets across the whole value chain. These are tougher targets than even our regulators are prepared to administer,” said Bisignani.
Aviation has committed to three sequential targets:
Improving average annual fuel efficiency by 1.5% to 2020
Stabilizing emissions with carbon-neutral growth from 2020
An aspirational goal to cut net emissions in half by 2050, compared to 2005
Bisignani recently met the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to present the industry strategy and targets. In the meeting, the UN Secretary-General commended the aviation industry’s commitment to contribute to the global fight against climate change and encouraged that these commitments be followed by concrete actions. He stressed the importance of addressing emissions from international aviation and shipping if the world is to achieve its goal of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions to a level that avoids dangerous climate change.
Bisignani singled out sustainable biofuels as an example of optimism in future reductions. “The three biggest opportunities for emissions reductions are technology, infrastructure and sustainable biofuels. Of these, sustainable biofuels are the most exciting because for the first time air transport has the possibility of an alternative to traditional jet fuel. Our attention is on camelina, jatropha and algae which do not compete for land or water with food crops but have the potential to reduce our carbon footprint by up to 80%. Because they can be grown in almost any soil condition or in salt water or even waste water they have the potential to create new industries and livelihoods by bringing sustainable energy production jobs to many of the least developed parts of the planet,” said Bisignani.
Four test flights with sustainable biofuels have proven that they meet the technical and safety standards for use in commercial aviation. Moreover, they can be blended with jet fuel and used in today’s aircraft and engines. “Progress is going at a much faster pace than anybody anticipated. Three years ago sustainable biofuels were a dream. Now we expect certification no later than 2011,” said Bisignani.
Bisignani took the opportunity to comment on the EU’s recently announced policy framework for Copenhagen. “The most important development is their explicit support for a global approach through ICAO. They have set some targets which are more political than technical. As such they are neither credible nor achievable with the timelines described,” said Bisignani
“The most important outcome from Copenhagen for aviation will be agreement to treat aviation as a sector under the leadership of ICAO and working with industry. This should be the focus for all governments seeking to effect real reductions in CO2 from the global aviation sector—from India and China to the EU and the US. If not, we face the risk of uncoordinated competitive government taxation that won’t reduce emissions but will be harmful to global economic development,” said Bisignani.
IATA (International Air Transport Association) represents some 230 airlines comprising 93% of scheduled international air traffic.
Source: www.iata.org