The Copenhagen environment conference was supposed to bring solutions to the problems nearer. The conference was a complete flop, certainly in
respect of aviation. Of course, trusting anything this serious to politicians is a bad idea to begin with, but this is the world we live in. We must trust them to get it right every now and again. Copenhagen was not one of their better days… But what will aviation be doing now?
Luckily, we are long past the initial arguments saying that aviation’s part in harmful emissions was so small, it was not even worth talking abut. The contribution is still very small but avoiding talking about it gets few friends for any industry… Aviation has built itself a reputation of environmental consciousness and as a source of innovative solutions, both of which were set as examples to other industries just before the Copenflop. That none of those ideas were used or even considered by the conference is not aviation’s fault….
The next opportunity to achieve something will be the meeting of ICAO’s General Assembly in September. As the General Assembly meets only once every three years, catching this opportunity is vital. Why? Well, it is not so that various States and the EU are without ideas on how to implement various green policies and charges (of course…) and some of them would only be too happy to fire up those policies regardless of the fact that they would constitute a patchwork nightmare and the potential source of double or triple taxation for the world’s airlines.
The industry is facing a real challenge. It must come up with proposals to ICAO which can then be implemented and which would ensure globally coordinated policies and charges. ICAO also realized the importance of this and they are working with industry to find a solution.
A global carbon market is a must, but setting up, not to mention running, anything global is not something anyone can do easily these days. IATA for one is arguing for this as they see such a market as the best tool to avoid chaos.
In the meantime, the aviation industry is pushing ahead with its drive to find alternative fuels. 50/50 kerosene and bio is almost here now with standards for 100 % bio to follow shortly.
May be, just may be, we will get to the point where everyone recognizes: aviation has done its part and should be rewarded for this. By being allowed to fly without unjustified burdens imposed by politicians who have failed to do their part…